Mendoukusei
by Naz-G
Summary: Sakura, an S Class Jounin and medic, one of the most powerful Konoha has ever had. Her legendary Team 7 are all part of ANBU. Life's good. Only 1 problem: she's steadily falling for her stoic, gorgeous sex god of a captain. *Sigh*, mendoukusei, ne?
1. Chapter 1

**Mendoukusei 1.**

**When translated, it means, 'how troublesome', just as Shikamaru would say it.**

Oh yes, my life definitely sucked.

To be more precise, it sucked dirty, hairy, old, wrinkly, slimy, grimy, muddy, useless, disgusting, donkey balls.

Three ribs broke as my ribcage received a vicious kick. My back hit a tree (a very rough one, if I may add) and I fell onto the ground in an ungraceful heap. I raised my hand and begun healing them.

I saw Shisui, Genma, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and Hana all wince quite visibly.

Oh yes, they felt my pain indeed, sadistic bastards.

"Get up, Haruno-san." Uchiha Taichou said in his smooth, lilting tenor. I looked up, wincing much worse than I wanted to in the process.

Oh, if he weren't that sexy, I'd have cursed him in about fifteen different languages.

Uchiha Itachi spread his hand for me to take, which I did and he helped me to my wobbly feet.

"That will be it for today. We will meet again in two days' time, when you are done with your medical training with Hokage-sama. Rest well tomorrow, because I will not hold back."

I tried smiling, but considering how much pain I was feeling, I ended up grimacing instead. "You never do, Uchiha Taichou. I never expected you to, I rasped. "Ow, ow, ow...," God, my body hurt.

"Very well. I shall see you in two days." He looked to Kakashi-sensei, who immediately understood that they needed to head out to wherever they were going, probably ANBU headquarters or something.

Kakashi-sensei snapped his book shut and lazily moved himself from the tree on which he was leaning. "Ma, I guess I'll see you all later, then." In his usual lazy gait, he paused next to Uchiha Taichou. They casually made their way to the ANBU headquarters.

"Ne, ne Sakura-chan, he really went all out, didn't he?"

"No, dobe. He didn't. That's why she's broken and bleeding as she is."

I growled as menacingly as I could in my state. I was too weak to even shout at them, let alone punch them right across Fire Country.

"Sadistic assholes. Just fuck off and leave me alone. _Both of you _are the reason I'm in this state in the first place, or have you forgotten?"

They promptly shut up.

How the fuck did I end up in this situation again? I growled at the memory, and made a mental note to pummel my former teammates and best friends, all three of them, into the very depths of hell when all this was done.

It all started about a month and a half ago when Kakashi-sensei and Shishou put my name up for ANBU trials. I had not the slightest idea that I had been recommended. I got a memo on my bed one day telling me where I needed to be in the library for my ANBU theory exams three days later.

The memo was in a handwriting I'd never seen before. It wasn't in Shihsou's, because she's got the worst handwriting I've ever seen in my life, after Naruto's. It wasn't Kakashi-sensei's either, since his handwriting was a mixture of calligraphy and scribbling. I don't even know how I actually manage to decipher it. It wasn't Naruto's, of course, since this writing was the complete opposite of his. This note had perfect spelling and grammar, not to mention it was perfectly neat, and the paper was still in one piece. If it was Naruto's, I'd be reading horrible spelling, atrocious grammar, numerous cancellations, scribbly marks and tears all over the paper. It couldn't have been Sasuke-kun's either. Though he did have a rather nice handwriting, it was extremely formal, with perfectly straight strokes.

This handwriting was all out _exquisite, _neat and perfect. The strokes of each letter were defined, but there were occasional curves that needed not to be there, though they did make the words much more...artistic, a sign of an expert calligrapher and/or artist.

Good Kami-sama. Shinobi in this village really had guts.

I sprinted right into Shishou's office, and demanded to know who wrote this and left it on my bed.

Shishou, already used to my temper, looked up at the note and frowned. She was grumbling something along the lines of "lazy bastard" under her breath.

Still doing her paper work, she sighed and took a swig of sake before telling me, "I told your bloody lazy sensei to tell you about your ANBU exams, but I can bet he had to go reading his porn with his fellow pervert in the dango shop, meaning he got Itachi to do it for him. I should schedule a sparring session with him, so that I can duly show him how seniors should set good examples. SHIZUNE, BRING IN MY PROGRAMME FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. WE NEED TO CHANGE SOME THINGS." She was yelling by the end of it. I had to admit: she had quite the set of lungs.

I walked out of the building, really pitying Kakashi-sensei. Now that Shishou had confirmed that Uchiha Taichou had written to me infor-

I stopped dead in my tracks. Uchiha Taichou had written this note to me? THE Uchiha Itachi had informed me, in his beautiful handwriting no less, that I was sitting for ANBU theory in three days?

The second that bit of information sank into my brain and processed, I proceeded to pitch a fit that I'm sure was added into the history books of Konoha.

"_SHISHOU! KAKASHI-SENSEI!" _I could just see them sniggering and cackling in unholy sadistic glee.

Afterward, I promptly took myself to the third training ground and did what I did best when I was in a rage: totally and utterly annihilated said grounds. By the time I left, there were tree trunks scattered all over (some of them in splinters), the ground (if you could even call it that) was broken apart and parts of it were jutting out at odd angles.

I caused so much destruction that Shishou actually sent some ANBU to check out what was going on. When they arrived, they saw me, sweaty, dirty and pissed. Then they saw the state of the training grounds and decided they liked themselves in one piece, thank you very much. They took off, and it took three and a half weeks for earth-type shinobi to make the training ground look like what it used to be.

To this very day, I am extremely proud at the kind of destruction my monstrous strength can cause. I'm going to be on par with Shishou soon.

Anyway, the next day found me in the Hokage's office, with my two smirking teachers eyeing me in all unholy, sadistic glee.

I was growling the whole time. I could not believe they could do this to me.

And then Shishou actually leaned back in her chair and smirked even more. Before I could ask what the hell she was smirking about, I heard a quiet voice. "Not to worry, Haruno-san. Hokage-sama and Kakashi-san tell me that you excel in theory. I am certain that you will pass." I looked to the direction of the voice, for the briefest of moments, I swear my heart stopped beating.

Standing in the shadows, next to my smirking sensei, was Uchiha Itachi, one leg casually bent with the sole of his foot on the wall with the other on the floor. He was dressed casually, though he had his shruiken holster strapped to his thigh, the only indication that he was a shinobi. He had crossed his arms around his chest, his face blank as ever.

I unconsciously swallowed. This man was _H-O-T._

My inner was drooling and nose bleeding at the same time.

How come I never noticed him? I couldn't even sense his chakra patterns. Then again, this was Uchiha Itachi. He is the one that decided whether he wanted to be noticed or not.

Shock (and small amounts of lust) became rage again, and I found myself sulking.

Of all the bloody nerve. I have never brooded like that in my entire life. It even reached a point where I was sure that even Sasuke-kun had nothing on me when it came to brooding.

D-day finally arrived (I had since resigned myself to my miserable, sad fate) and I went to take the exam. Who knew that part of ANBU exams was theory?

As was expected of me, I passed. I found myself sitting in the Hokage's office (again) with my two teachers and my two teammates.

"Congratulations, Sakura. You passed," Shihsou said, smiling warmly. I looked over at Kakashi-sensei and the warmth in his eye assured me that he was proud. I puffed out my chest in pride.

Jeez, I was definitely hanging out with Naruto too much.

"However, Kakashi and I have decided on the perfect instructor you for these next two weeks. Sasuke and Naruto helped too," Shishou said, going back to being serious.

"You should definitely train with temee's older brother. He might be clan-heir-stick-up-his-ass and all, but he'll definitely get you into ANBU. Not to mention he's also fast enough to dodge your heavenly fists." Naruto shuddered, thinking about how much damage my fists were constantly doing to his physique.

Sasuke-kun nodded his agreement. "I'll talk to him about it when we get home, though Godaime also said she'll put in a word. Kakashi apparently had a word with him earlier, though. You'll tell him that we agreed, right?" he said, looking up at Kakashi-sensei.

I simply stared, watching Sasuke-kun have a conversation about me as if I wasn't even in the room. Then as the shock of the suggestion wore off and I understood it was not a suggestion, I threw a tantrum that only Shishou and I could pull off.

"_NANIII? ARE YOU GUYS INSANE? D'YOU REALLY WANT TO KILL ME?" _I screamed more in terror than in rage, pacing up and down the office and flailing my arms around dramatically.

It took another few minutes before they removed their hands off their ears and decided they could hear again.

"No, Sakura. We most definitely don't want to kill you. We just need you to pass the ANBU exams that desperately," Kakashi-sensei remarked, blunt as always.

I went from shock, to terror, to incredulity. "You know what, Kakashi-sensei? You really _are _insane. I think too many high-risk ANBU missions and Naruto, Sasuke-kun and Hana's influence has gotten to you. Add that to reading porn with Shisui in the dango shop, and presto! Sheer insanity takes root."

He simply crinkled his eye in that patented smile of his. "I love you too, Sakura–chan." His eye opened again and he seemed to be in thought. "It's romance, not porn," he added, sulking.

I rolled my eyes, though with a smile.

"Okay, then. You may come into my office tomorrow, then we'll organise the rest." Shihsou said, shooing us out with a wave of her hand.

I went home thinking of the impending doom that awaited me the next day, and the next few weeks after that.

I was on autopilot the whole walk home. What was going to happen next? I knew my life was definitely going to change if I made it into the Black Ops, but what next?

And what was with that reaction when I saw Sasuke-kun's brother? To be honest, Uchiha Taichou is extremely hot. I could even say he's sexy. He gets any red blooded woman's hormones running. As much as people say he doesn't have emotions or hormones and everything, I'd beg to differ. Judging by the number of seduction missions he's sent on, I'd say he has perfectly normal emotions and hormones. He just chooses not to show them.

I got to the door of my apartment and realised I was digressing. Looking for my keys in the numerous pockets of my jounin jacket and cursing at the same time. After about two minutes of rummaging through said pockets, I found them and opened the door. I flopped tiredly on my worn couch and continued thinking why I reacted the way I did to Uchiha Taichou.

My brain drew a blank.

I growled and decided to go prepare myself for sleep. I'd think about it thoroughly later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Yo,**

**I'm so, so, so amazed at the response this story has gotten. I mean, I'm in shock. All the alerts and favourites and reviews...they make me so happy, considering I'm just coming up with a plot in my mind as I write. Oh well, randomness is the way to go. I personally think the random writers are the best writers.**

**Madddd love for my beta ToMakeMeTame. She's stricter than my high school English teacher, but she's awesome. Love ya, girlie. :-D**

**Mendoukusei 2.**

The next day at exactly eight o'clock in the morning found me in Training Ground Two with one Uchiha Itachi.

Uchiha Itachi. Uchiha clan heir. Graduated from the Academy at seven (after clearing it in a year, at the top of his class), mastered his sharingan at eight, became a chuunin at ten, then an_ ANBU captain _at thirteen.

A genius and prodigy never seen in Kami-knows-how-many-generations. (though Sandaime once stated the only one who may have had enough intellect to give him a run for his money was Yondaime).

One of the most powerful shinobi of his generation, both in AND out of Konoha.

He was dressed casually, from top to bottom in black: his t-shirt, high collared with the Uchiha clan symbol at the back, slacks and sandals. His clothes really brought attention to his ('_utterly sexy, gorgeous,' _my inner was drooling, but I pushed her back to the recesses of my mind) body: lean and toned with excellent muscular structure. (I'm a medic. I can tell these things.) His slacks highlighted his powerful long legs. His face looked the same: emotionless, those gorgeous onyx eyes of his blank, though his tear troughs under his eyes were much less pronounced, meaning he was relaxed.

At least, as relaxed as his apathetic face could reveal.

He was much leaner than Sasuke-kun, who was heavier and bulkier. Itachi, on the other hand had a body built for speed and agility, rather than raw strength, perfect for a shinobi with genjutsu of abilities.

There was a slight breeze, and his black silky ponytail together with the bangs on his face moved with it. "Good morning, Haruno-san." His smooth, lilting tenor carried its way to my ears. He was standing and leaning casually against a huge tree, (one that would become very well acquainted with my back in the next few weeks), looking like he just stepped out of heaven.

I swallowed. His voice was a combination of velvet and melted chocolate. Not good for a girl's hormones.

"Good morning, Uchiha Taichou," I replied, my voice slightly wavering. I could always blame the breeze. It was kind of cold, considering how it was early in the morning and said breeze was moving from the numerous trees that surrounded our village. We weren't the named the Village Hidden in the Leaves just for kicks. Despite the cold, it was slightly refreshing.

"I suppose you understand the reason we are here." It was a statement. He got off the tree and started walking towards me, stopping about a foot in front of me.

"Yes," I replied, asking whichever deities were listening why they loved to torture me so.

"Good." Then he did the unthinkable.

He smirked.

Slowly and deliberately, he _smirked._

My body promptly shut down. My mouth went dry, and try as I might I just couldn't generate enough moisture to wet it. My brain cells were hyperventilating at an incredible rate and I was finding it increasingly difficult to gather what was left of them to form any coherent thought. My pulse had increased considerably, and even then I felt as though not enough blood was reaching my brain. I'm sure my lungs were working overtime as well to try and get me breathing properly again.

This man was so extremely handsome, it was simply unbelievable.

His smirk was almost identical to Sasuke-kun's. The only difference was Sasuke-kun's smirk could not _begin _to do the things his older brother's smirk was doing.

Not since I outgrew that girly crush I had on him. But even when I _did _have that crush, Sasuke-kun's smirk didn't affect me like this.

Uchiha Taichou really was in a league of his own.

"What is it, Haruno-san?"

I immediately closed my mouth and looked at the ground, my face turning thirty shades of red.

"N-n-no, Uchiha taichou. There's no-nothing wr-wrong," I stammered as my inner promptly swooned and fainted.

Now I could understand why he had hordes of fangirls wherever he went. Ally or foe, he would have all women - kunoichi or civilian, married or single, old or young - all of them throwing themselves all over him.

I remember how during the chuunin exams held in Kiri last year, the Godaime Mizukage was flirting with him. Shishou was not amused at all, and the Kiri shinobi were extremely embarrassed. Or rather, the _male _Kiri shinobi were extremely embarrassed. The kunoichi were aiding their Mizukage-sama at throwing anything and everything at him: their charms, their clothes and themselves.

It was not helping that he was in full ANBU gear, excluding the mask.

It is a well-known fact that _any _man in full ANBU gear was the ultimate kunoichi aphrodisiac. I'm sure if you even put Lee and Gai-sensei in ANBU uniform they'd look delectable.

But if you put someone like Uchiha Taichou in full ANBU gear, who looked like the most sinfully delectable masculine human to ever grace Fire Country in _casual wear_, he'd immediately be upgraded to all out sex god.

And being Uchiha Itachi, he stoically bore through all of it. He totally ignored his fangirls, and showed absolutely no reaction to their entertaining antics.

Uchihas weren't exactly the most patient people in the world, and Shishou knew that one of her most powerful ANBU captains would eventually snap, and katon people into ash, so she promptly made him her bodyguard. That way, he would only have to deal with the predatory looks the Mizukage was constantly throwing his way.

Of course, Shisui, (he and Uchiha Taichou were best friends. They worked so well together that Sandaime decided to put them on the same ANBU team. Wherever Itachi was, Shisui was never far behind and vice versa) and Sasuke-kun, being Uchihas had their fair share of fangirls as well, but there was something the clan heir had that they did not. They too were extremely intelligent shinobi, geniuses in their own right (though Shisui's genius was, at times, questionable), and they were both powerful, but something about Uchiha Taichou pulled the women to him like a magnet.

It was extremely entertaining, if I had to say so myself. But because I valued my life and had no intentions to be tsukuyomi'-d into the next lifetime, I shut my mouth about my opinions.

I wondered what was gonna happen in Iwa this year, since they were the ones hosting the chuunin exams. It was going to be quite entertaining, that was for sure.

"We shall begin with genjutsu," he said, in that quiet, sexy voice of his.

I was immediately jerked out of my thoughts. I shook my head slightly, and looked up at him, swallowing before nodding.

Just as we were beginning my training session, I cursed both my sensei and my teammates to hell and back a thousand times.

At exactly twelve noon, he informed me that training was over for the day. "Your genjutsu is above average, just as Hokage-sama informed me. You are a true genjutsu type, I can see it from the way you dispel my illusions. You are still weak when it comes to counter illusions, though. I understand it is one of the most complicated types of defense, but it is extremely crucial. Would you like me to have a word with Kurenai-san to help you with that?" he asked.

I nodded, tired but grateful.

"Very well, then. I shall see you in two days."

"Thank you, Uchiha Taichou," I said slowly, a tired smile on my face. He nodded curtly, once, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

I looked at myself and grunted in annoyance at my appearance.I was sweaty, not to mention _exhausted. _Genjutsu does little to no damage physically, but it mentally exhausts you, because it involves a lot of thinking, planning and strategising. I was beat.

I looked up at the merciless sun, and my mood went from bad to worse.

Every single time after the training session, Uchiha Taichou would still look as flawlessly sexy as ever, not a strand of black silky hair out of place, nor a scratch on his perfectly gorgeous body. Even his breathing was normal.

I, on the other hand, always looked worse than shit. I was dirty, sweaty, bloody and messy. The fact that Sasuke-kun, Naruto and Hana would occasionally come over and see my ass handed to me, amidst comments of me looking crappier than acceptable (Hana's words), never helped my mood any.

Afterwards, I'd be carried to the hospital to see a smirking Shishou and a sympathetic Shizune waiting for me. My dark mood would only worsen.

That was just how it was, whether we were doing ninjutsu, genjutsu or taijutsu. The same thing would always happen; though I would cause a rare nick or scratch during taijutsu spars. In the end, however, I'd end up being beaten to a bloody, embarrassing pulp.

Personally, I couldn't believe if my life could get any sadder.

Then, when I would open my eyes and see Shisui's and Naruto's goofy grins, I'd cover my head again and groan in mortification. My life _did _have the possibility of getting worse.

Today, a week before the dreaded ANBU exams, was no different.

Oh yes, the life belonging to one Haruno Sakura, respected S-Class jounin and medic of Konohagakure no Sato, really did suck.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wassup you guys,**

**It's been months...and months...AND FREAKING MONTHS! I know, I'm sorry. A lot has been going on, you know, school, beta issues, more school, more beta issues, personal issues, beta issues, school...etc etc, usual stuff. **

**So I know don't have any betas due to unavoidable circumstances on both our ends. It's all good though. Life (and fanfics) must go on. As a testament of my useless but profuse apologies, I'm uploading two chapters at the same time. Hopefully, I'll get chapter five doe by Sunday.**

**Again, I'm sorry. :-D**

**Yeah, I'm back, people. I'm back.**

**Mendoukusei 3.**

"What the hell d'you want?" I groaned. I could almost _hear_ Naruto, Shisui, Genma and Sasuke-kun grinning. I swear they lived to torment my already miserable life. As much as I already knew they would say something stupid, I still anticipated it. I subconsciously began gritting my teeth, waiting rather impatiently for the answer.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, is it wrong to come and check on you?" Shisui asked, his voice having every intention of being irritating. Naruto's miserable attempts at sniggering silently made my already bad mood worse.

The sheets were roughly yanked off my body, leaving the cold wind from outside to hit me like a tornado, having every single intent of waking me up.

Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Shisui, and Gemna were all there, smirking at me. I growled.

Tsunade Shishou then entered into the room, walking towards my bed and began examining me. "Let me check how your injuries are progressing," She told me, gathering healing chakra into her hands and performing a quick examination.

"You're fine now," she stated once she had finished, "Your chakra levels are back to normal, though you need a little more rest. I'll take your shift in the hospital today, so don't strain yourself. I'll let you out later on in the day." She smiled at me, pride in her eyes.

I smiled back, just as warmly, "Thank you, Shishou."

She then abruptly turned her head to Kakashi-sensei's direction, the sudden momentum making her turn her whole body as well. "Remember, Hatake, tomorrow, we meet at the training grounds. I've decided to literally pummel that laziness out of your system."

To the civilian or even shinobi, you'd think he could care less, considering how indifferent he seemed, but we all knew better. Kakashi-sensei was in deep trouble, very deep trouble. His laziness had indeed caught up with him.

Couldn't blame him, though. Shishou's fists were not something you wanted to have anywhere near you when she was in the mood for venting. I really did feel sorry for my sensei. I was about to send a sympathetic glance his way, when it hit me that, after his broken bones and torn muscles were healed by me, he'd go home to Anko, who would screw him senseless.

Fuck sympathy. He really should get his ass beat. It was about time someone taught him a lesson or two concerning his laziness. He'd be getting laid after anyway.

As I was still swimming in my thoughts mentally seeing seeing Kakashi-sensei being beaten up to a bloody pulp, I heard my name said, smooth as melted chocolate.

"Haruno-san?"

I snapped my head up to come face to face with my trainer for the upcoming ANBU exams, Uchiha Taichou.

He stood about half a foot away from my bed, his emotionless ebony eyes staring right back at me. I couldn't look away. His eyes were so - how do I put it - _smouldering_.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to ignore the feeling of desire pooling in my stomach.

"Hey, Uchiha Taichou. How are you doing?"

"I am well. How are you faring?" he asked quietly.

"Good, good, thanks." I replied, smiling.

He nodded once before moving further back to stand between his fellow captain and his cousin.

"Yo, Itachi," Shisui began, grinning in a way that made me immediately suspicious. "Kakashi-senpai is getting his ass beat tomorrow by Godaime. You gonna be there? As a friend, he needs your support when he's gonna be pummelled six feet under."

I had always wondered what Shisui was really like. They were never this laid back, at least the Uchiha men I examined during their medical check-ups. Shisui's boisterous behaviour mirrored Naruto's, which I found not very usual for an Uchiha.

Uchiha Taichou just looked at him and didn't say anything. He then looked at Kakashi-sensei, who closed his book and sighed.

I always wondered how they all understood his silent language. Being Sasuke-kun's teammate all my life made me very aware of the kind of vocabulary, or lack thereof, used by the Uchiha Clan, but he, at least occasionally grunted or made some noise. Uchiha Taichou simply glanced.

"Tsunade-sama got pissed that I didn't write the memo I asked you to write for Sakura. She claims it was because of my laziness," Kakashi-sensei drawled.

"But it was, was it not?" Itachi replied smoothly, raising an eyebrow.

Why did his voice always have to sound smoother than velvet?

Kakashi-sensei sighed again. "That's not the point, Itachi. Apparently, I'm not setting a good example to my subordinates and my team. She tends to forget that my team consists of a broody genius, a loudmouthed idiot, and an aggressive brat. What can you really do for such a team?" he grumbled, opening his book again, continuing with his reading.

Naruto, Sasuke-kun and I chose to ignore him, though Hana would have been insulted at being called an aggressive brat.

"Indeed."

Kakashi-sensei looked up to find Itachi Taichou staring right at him, his apathetic face showing not an ounce of emotion.

"But then again, your team consists of an absolute pervert and a shameless womanizer," he mused. "Damn, I'm actually feeling sorry for whoever Tsunade-sama is going to assign as the fourth member." He shrugged and went back to his book.

I cleared my throat loudly, feeling everyone's eyes on me as I got their attention. Genma then turned to look outside the window, probably ogling some girl's ass or boobs. Maybe both.

"Well, thanks for visiting and all, but you can all get the hell out now. I wanna sleep," I said, as I made myself comfortable, yet again covering myself with the sheets.

"Come on, Sakura. We only just got here. It'd be very un-ladylike of you to kick us out so soon," Shisui whined.

"Since when was I ever a lady, Shisui?" I asked from under the sheets, as Naruto and Sasuke-kun snorted in agreement. Patience wasn't exactly my strongest suit. I inherited that from my Shishou, among other things.

"But still, it means you have absolutely no regard for-"

"Shisui, if you and everyone else in this room do not get out in the next thirty seconds, I will start from your left baby toe and end at your neck, breaking every single bone in between, _twice,_" I said, making sure my voice was pleasantly sweet.

I heard three gulps: Naruto, Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei. They knew that tone. I used it as an intimidation tactic that had them running for the hills, before I'd suddenly use them for my taijutsu practice.

After some shuffling, it became peacefully quiet and, with a smile on my face, I prepared to go back into a deep sleep.

"Sakura? Sakura? Wake up," Somebody murmured as they shooke me awake.

"Hmph...the antidote to that poison is in room 36B on the third floor of the west wing. It's in the frozen cupboard. Don't forget to check on the ANBU team that came in three days ago from the reconnaissance on the outskirts of Iwa," I mumbled, turning my head away and attempting to go back to sleep.

"No,no, Sakura. Tsunade-sama has asked me to wake you up. She's going to be here soon."

There was a brief silence, and I was about to go back to sleep, when Tsunade-Shishou's loud voice almost rendered me deaf. The nurse jumped and squealed like a terrified mouse.

"Get up, Sakura. It's time for you to be discharged. Mikoto has invited you over to her house for dinner," she boomed.

Well, there goes my sleep. Kami, she was loud.

I immediately sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes before I heard a crash, then a muffled scream, followed by an indignant shriek.

"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Before I could even react, I was engulfed in a bone-crushing hug that had Naruto written all over it.

"You're finally awake. Me and temee wanted to come and see you before, but Tsunade no baa-chan refused. Are you that sick Sakura-chan? So, anyway, we were going over to Ichiraku's for some ramen, then we saw Shisui, who told us that Mikoto kaa-chan had invited us over for dinner, so we detoured and came to the hospital to see you and tell you."

In typical Naruto fashion, he was talking at fifty miles a minute, not to mention crushing all the oxygen from my lungs in his bear hug.

"Let...go...Naruto...can't...breathe..." I wheezed.

Sasuke-kun finally came over and shoved him off me. "Hn. Get off her dobe. You're gonna kill her. Do you even know the meaning of the word detour?"

"Shut up, temee."

Sasuke-kun smirked, while I rolled my eyes.

Shishou was just looking at us, eyebrow raised. "Are you sure you guys are actually nineteen?" she asked dryly.

I ignored her question and hopped off the bed. "Thanks again, Shishou." I "What time does your mum expect us, Sasuke-kun?" I asked, turning towards him.

"Seven," he said, sounding bored, as he always does. The clock on the wall, indicated that it was five thirty. I could work with an hour and a half.

I debated about using the window and hopping out on the rooftops but I decided to just use the old fashioned way instead: doors. Gosh, wanting to go out the window is something Kakashi-sensei would have done. It seemed like his horrible habits were starting to get to me.

When I finally got home, I immediately headed over to my room to get dressed. I turned to my closet and rummaged through it, looking for something presentable to wear to the Uchiha household.

It wasn't going well.

"What the hell? When did I ever get this?" I asked myself, looking at a blood red dress that revealed too much flesh in the front for comfort.

"Nope. Don't wanna give Shisui the chance to look up at my panties," I said, raising my eyebrows at a pair of very short shorts.

"Green spandex jumpsuit? Oh yeah, Lee's present to me for my birthday." I threw it over my shoulder.

"OH. MY. GOD. Definitely comes from Ino-pig's closet." This dress was black, and extremely tight. It had no back, only covering up my ass at the back. In front, it showed too much cleavage than was allowed by etiquette and it was only few inches over mid-thigh.

"Fuck. I forgot to wash the blood off this." I whined, examining a pink top, smeared with crusty, dried blood.

After about fifteen minutes of rummaging and throwing clothes all over my room; I settled for a pair of beige linen pants, a cream coloured top, a beige leather jacket that I had inherited from my dad, and a pair of cute white flip flops.

I happily hopped into the shower, coming out after twenty minutes. By the time I had dried, applied lotion and gotten dressed, it was six thirty, so I decided to take my time strolling to the Uchiha compound.

I got to the gates in about fifteen minutes and smiled at the guards, who were used to seeing me from when Naruto and I came to collect Sasuke-kun in our genin and chuunin days.

I got to the main Uchiha house, where the clan head and his family lived and politely knocked. A few moments later, the door opened and it took every single ounce of self-control I have ever possessed in my shinobi life to not let my jaw drop.

Casually leaning against the door frame in all his delicious, masculine glory was Uchiha Itachi. He was wearing nothing but a pair of faded black jeans, with the button and zip open, exposing the top of black cotton boxers.

It took a lot of will power to remove the exceedingly dirty thoughts filling up my mind.

His long silky, raven hair was unbound, cascading down his broad shoulders like a graceful waterfall, before flowing to a halt just beneath his shoulder blades. His broad chest and delectable abs illuminated by the light from the surrounding houses in the district. His long legs were emphasised by his state of dress, (_or lack thereof,_ my inner gurgled, drool and blood pooling down at her feet).

I was standing in front of the epitome of a masculine sex god. This man was the embodiment of sin itself. Hell, he looked even more sinful than sin.

He raised an eyebrow. "Good evening, Haruno-san. You are early," He murmured in his quiet, sexy voice.

For a long moment, my mind went blank. My inner was babbling nonsense, so I couldn't even turn to her for help. Not that I could blame her, really.

He raised his arms and crossed them across his well muscled chest waiting for me to reply. God, it should be illegal to be this gorgeous.

My face turned fifty shades of red when I realised that he was watching me ogle him.

"U-um...Naruto's almost her-here. I-I saw him before I left my place. J-just give him a few more minutes. I-I'm sure he won't t-take long," I stuttered.

Just then, I saw a flash of orange and yellow zoom by. "Oi, Sakura-chan, hold up!" it yelled. Upon arrival, Naruto bent down, placing with his palms on his knees while panting heavily. After a moment, he looked up and smiled cheerfully.

"Yo, Itachi Taichou. Can we come in? Where's temee?" he asked loudly, looking around. Then he looked at Uchiha Taichou and noticed his lack of state of dress.

"Why aren't you fully dressed?" he asked, blue eyes wide in confusion.

How the hell was he accepted in ANBU again?

"Good evening, Naruto-kun. Welcome. Let me tell my otouto you are here." Itachi replied moving aside to allow us to pass.

I started forward to get into the house, but then Naruto came and squeezed himself between me and the door. I glared at him, and he looked at me, before smiling awkwardly, and squeezing himself out again. I was finally able to get into the house, and then Naruto came in after me.

Leaving my shoes in the lobby, I slowly made my way into the spacious living room full of comfortable leather chairs.

It was going to be a long night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Mendoukusei 4.**

Ten minutes later, we were sitting in the dinning room with Sasuke-kun, Adonis in the flesh i.e. Itachi and their parents. The food had been served and I had Naruto's hands in one of my killer grips to prevent him from devouring all the rice balls before everyone else settled down.

Itachi now had a black t-shirt on. His jeans, though, were still open and I could still see his boxers. Sasuke-kun had shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Naruto, as usual wore his orange sweats and a yellow T-shirt that almost matched the colour of his hair.

"Sakura-chan, let go. It's time to eat. Look, even Fugaku-otoo-san and Mikoto-kaa-chan agree with me. I promise I'll leave a rice ball for you, temee and Itachi-Taichou to share."

Sasuke-kun frowned, his mother smiled, his father's lips slightly twitched, I snarled and Itachi grunted.

"Let him go." Sasuke-kun's father stated, fighting off an amused smirk. I sighed and did as he requested. Naruto promptly began piling his plate with ramen and rice balls.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Conversation consisted mostly of the upcoming ANBU exams (my impending doom) and the chuunin exams three weeks later in Iwa.

"Are you trying out for ANBU, Sakura dear?" Sasuke-kun's mother asked politely.

I nodded, helping myself to another rice ball. The Uchiha matriarch's rice balls were the best I'd ever tasted, after tempura.

"How lovely. You'll be the first kunoichi of your generation to enter if you do indeed pass, right?"

I nodded, blushing slightly. Being the Hokage's apprentice, everyone had very high expectations of me. As usual, all the major clan heads and respective councils were going to be present, together with the Konoha council and probably the daimyo and his family. Being the first kunoichi of the Rookie nine to apply for ANBU would definitely make them pay closer attention than normal. Shishou and Kakashi-sensei had made it abundantly clear that they expected me to enter ANBU.

The matriarch smiled at me again, and we settled into a comfortable silence. Dinner was eventually over, and before I left, I asked Sasuke-kun if his mother also invited his brother's ANBU team over for dinner often.

"She does. It's normally very annoying, but I have to suck it up because aniki sucks up my team over." We both thanked the family for having us for dinner (or rather, I gracefully thanked them while Naruto just yelled, "Arigato, Uchiha-sama,") I dragged Naruto towards the gate and we both made our way to our separate homes.

As I walked home, I debated about going to the bar, but immediately disregarded it. Kakashi-sensei was, in Shisui's words, getting his ass beat by Shishou tomorrow, and I definitely didn't want to miss that. I decided to go home and sleep and dream about Uchiha Taichou and his delectable abs.

That bloody, annoying bell woke me up the next day, and the second it started ringing, I reached my hand out from under the covers and crashed it flat like a pancake in order to shut it up.

Man, my chakra control really sucks when I wake up. This was the eighth clock I'd broken this month. Guess I'd have to buy another one later on.

I groggily got out of bed and prepared myself to go to the Hokage tower. I took longer than necessary because I was being extra ordinarily lazy. Jeez, I really needed to stop playing shogi with Shikamaru. Maybe his laziness was getting to me. I should find a new shogi partner. Perhaps Neji would do? I made a mental note to ask him later on.

I arrived just in time to see Shishou getting ready to go to the training grounds and beat Kakashi-sensei to a silver-haired pulp.

"It's good you're here, Sakura. I was wondering who was going to heal that bastard's injuries. Shizune can't because she's got work to do-" I snorted "-so I need a medic of high calibre, because by the time I'll be done with him, he'll think twice before pulling such stunts again," she growled, cracking her knuckles.

Oooh, Kakashi-sensei was _doomed, _that was a given. Shishou never cracked her knuckles. If she did, well, there would be hell to pay.

It was turning out to be a very interesting day indeed, maybe even more interesting than the day I was doing a recon with Neji's ANBU team and some Kiri kunoichi flashed her boobs us, leading to very heavy nosebleeds on his two subordinates' parts and a raised eyebrow from both Neji and I. Then two said subordinates couldn't believe how Neji could still think straight after some woman, quote '_flashed her boobies in his face' _unquote, hence starting the rumour that he was probably gay. His fangirls cried for weeks on end.

Good times.

We got to Training Ground Eight (with the three poles that reminded me as my first day as a genin. Aah, the memories) and found Naruto, Sasuke-kun, Hana, Shisui (with _Icha Icha _in hand) and Genma.

I went and stood between Naruto and Sasuke-kun as Shishou stood in the middle of the grounds, waiting for my chronically tardy sensei. Her eyebrow began twitching. Patience plus her temper were never a good combination.

This was gonna be an awesome day.

Suddenly, a puff of smoke and a swirl of leaves appeared. When they disappeared, there stood Kakashi-sensei and Uchiha Taichou. Both were dressed in full ANBU uniform. Uchiha Taichou went and stood between Genma and Shisui, while Kakashi-sensei remained where he was, directly in front of Shishou.

"Good morning, Tsunade-sama," he drawled.

Shishou didn't say anything. She just growled.

Kakashi-sensei very audibly gulped.

Shishou's heel hit the ground, and a very large fissure developed.

Then the battle begun.

"How long d'you think he's gonna last before she stops?" Hana asked, as we watched Kakashi-sensei be punched through four trees.

"No idea. This is Kakashi we're talking about. He's been hanging around my captain too much, hence some of that Uchiha pride has gotten to him, meaning he won't give up till he's beat within an inch of his life, or probably till he blacks out." Genma replied, moving slightly out of the the way as a katon goukakyuu roared past.

"I really wonder why Kakashi likes pissing off Godaime when he knows what's gonna happen to him anyway. For a genius, he really is stupid." Sasuke-kun said nonchalantly, ducking as the subject of our conversation zoomed above his head into the lake behind us.

I looked at Sasuke-kun and raised an eyebrow. "You're really not one to talk, Sasuke-kun." I snorted. That earned me a typical Uchiha patented glare, which I was already immune to as an after effect of having an Uchiha in my team from genin-hood to jounin-hood. By then, Shishou had punched the ground again, causing all of us to jump in the air and wait for the ground to stop breaking apart.

"Caving in now, Hatake? I've broken your left wrist, making you unable to form any seals. Just give up already." Shishou howled, looking like a mess herself. Kakashi-sensei, I'm sure, must have had some pretty decent hits himself. She was limping, and was bleeding form her mouth and her nose. She had bruises and cuts all over her body.

"Are you alright, Hokage-sama?" Uchiha Taichou asked, speaking for the first time in this apparent spar. Kami, if Kakashi-sensei and Shihsou could call beating each other up to bloody pulps 'spars', then clearly, they went all out when it came to battles against enemies.

I haven't been in a team with Kakashi-sensei for two years now, and since he rejoined ANBU, Sasuke-kun and Naruto tell me he's even more brutally ruthless than we ever saw him.

"Che, I'm fine, Uchiha. I'm your bloody Hokage, for Kami's sake. What the hell d'you take me for?" Shishou replied, looking sharply at Uchiha Taichou. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you asking about your fellow captain anyway?" she said, looking in the direction of the lake, where my wet sensei was groaning.

"Kakashi can take care of himself."

"Really? And I can't? Are you insinuating that I'm too old, you brat?"

"I am simply doing my duty as an ANBU captain by guarding you in absence of your regular ANBU guards. Isn't this the reason why you have Genma-san, I, Naruto-kun and my otouto here?" Uchiha Taichou questioned politely.

Shishou smirked. "You really are a one of a kind prodigy. Your genius never fails to impress me. Why d'you think Hana's here?"

"To make sure that nobody inappropriate wanders this way while you and Kakashi spar."

Shihsou turned back to me. "Go heal him. I'm sure I've damaged quite a significant number of his internal organs. He's too beat to even call for help. Tell him to come to my office the second he's considered able by you. If he escapes from the hospital again, fell free to bring him back here and re-enforce this beating. Now scram, so that I can heal myself. Brat's still as good as ever. Burnt off half of my skin with his stupid goukakyuu."

I turned, smiling wryly and shaking my head, leaving Shishou grumbling to herself as I headed for my poor, beat up sensei. I did some minor first aid, before plopping him on my shoulder and heading off to the hospital.

Many hours later, (I wasn't keeping count because I depleted a good chunk of my chakra reserves healing Kakashi-sensei), I decided to go home and sleep. Naruto made me swear on my honour as a Konoha kunoichi to turn up in the bar later on. Apparently everyone of the Rookie nine was gonna be there, so it was a perfect excuse to just get drunk.

I walked into the loud, dark club and immediately spotted a blonde head and a raven one.

"Yo, Sakura-chan, over here." I saw Naruto yelling for me and went over to the table where him and Sasuke-kun were sitting.

I had just sat down and was ordering my drink when Sasuke-kun turned to me with a smirk on his face.

I immediately gulped. Sasuke-kun never just randomly smirks at anyone, not even us, former Team Seven.

"Aniki suggested to Godaime to put you on his team if you passed your exams tomorrow." He drawled, very obviously enjoying himself.

I promptly chocked on my drink and spat out that which was left in my mouth. "What?" I gasped.

"You heard me Sakura. There's a very high chance of you getting into aniki's team if you make it into ANBU."

I couldn't believe it. For the next ten minutes, I just sat there, stunned. How the hell did he know? I asked him about it.

"I was there when he asked it." He replied.

My hands played with the glass full my new drink again. "How d'you know if she'll approve. D'you really think she'll put me in his team?"

Sasuke-kun rolled his eyes. "You know her better than I do. I think that's a question you're more suited to answer than me. Yet again, we both know what the answer is."

I sighed. The sad thing was, he is right.

I frowned. Dammit.

I am one of the best medics in Konoha, second from Shishou and Shizune nee-san. My teammates once constituted the legendary Copy Nin, the kyuubi jinchuuriki and an Uchiha. I am the protégé of the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.

All the above made me arguably the most powerful kunoichi of my generation. I even highly suspect it's the reason Tsunade Shihsou and Kakashi-sensei want me to join ANBU so bad. One of the most formidable ANBU teams is short one member. What better person to fill that place than a medic of high calibre such as myself?

I knew my life just sucked. It was time to get totally wasted.


	5. Chapter 5

**Mendoukusei 5.**

I thought the fates and I already established the fact that my life sucked.

My head was killing me. My eyes were red and puffy, I was feeling dizzy and weak, not to mention I had a very strong urge to go empty my guts, through my mouth.

Just as I was thinking how this day had the potential to move from bad to worse, it actually did.

"Sakura? Where the hell are you? You're exam starts in one and a half hours." Kakashi-sensei yelled from the living room of my flat.

"Exam?" I asked, disoriented.

He sighed. "Yes. Your exam. Your ANBU exam."

After the shock wore off, I promptly sprinted into my toilet to empty the contents of my stomach of last night's dinner, and lunch.

When I was done throwing up, I slumped myself on the floor, panting and not feeling very good. Kakashi-sensei suddenly walked in through the door. He had a sympathetic look on his face. "You look like shit."

"Sensei, remind me to beat you into nothingness the second I pass my exams, okay?" I wheezed. "Before that, do take me to Shizune. I don't wanna be puking my guts all over Konoha as I dodge whichever sadistic jounin that's going to be examining me."

Fifteen minutes later found me in the Hokage tower, being healed by Shizune. "What happened to you?" She asked as she moved her glowing hands from my left temple to my right.

"Naruto and Sasuke-kun literally dragged me to the bar. We then proceeded to drink ourselves stupid and somehow survive from alcohol poisoning, though I had every reason to." I mumbled.

I remembered the conversation Sasuke-kun and I had had the previous day. I was actually going to end up on Itachi Taichou's team, one of the best ANBU teams in Konoha's history.

"Indeed. You're all done now." Shizune's voice brought me back to the present. "Go check the list and find out who you're fighting. It's on the ground floor." She removed her hand and gave me room to get off the examination bed and leave her office. I zoomed downstairs to the lobby where the list was posted up. I managed to push and squeeze and bully my way to the front. I looked up my name and promptly blanched at the person whose ass I was supposed to pummel.

Shock slowly led way to rage and Inner Sakura was released with her usual aplomb.

"_SHISHOU!"_

I stomped back to her office, my steps causing small tremors throughout the building. People simply moved out of my way. Nobody asked me anything when I was pissed.

I kicked her door open, making it swing one hundred and eighty degrees hitting the wall and falling off the hinges. Shizune jumped and squeaked slightly when she saw me still standing there, my leg still positioned in the air.

"It seems you've found out who you're fighting," Shishou said, smirking.

I couldn't reply. I was too busy being totally infuriated and breathing fire to answer.

"Really Tsunade Shishou? Shiranui Genma? _Shiranui Genma? _He's the biggest man-whoring playboy Konoha has ever had the misfortune to produce, not to mention his perverse levels rank way up there with Jiraiya-sama, Kakashi-sensei and Shisui. Why do _I _of all people have to fight him?" I screeched, flailing my arms in the air and pacing up and down the room.

Shishou sighed. "You kunoichi of today, so melodramatic. As much as Genma's...hobbies and interests aren't exactly...pleasing to your inner feminist, he's also one of the most powerful ANBU operatives who's fighting style you don't know. I couldn't pair you with my other best since all you'd do smile that sickly-sweet smile of yours and they'd be peeing in their pants. It was either him or Itachi, and I am sympathetic to my protégé."

I thought about Sasuke-kun, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei peeing in their pants. That calmed my inner beast slightly. Then I thought about fighting Uchiha Taichou. I trembled slightly. Defeat was one thing, humiliation was another. Uchiha Taichou was more likely to humiliate rather than defeat me.

"What about Shisui then? I'm sure I could take him."

"He's fighting someone else. Some random Hyuuga, I think."

I raised an eyebrow. Random Hyuuga? Hiyashi-sama would not be pleased if he heard her refer to his clansman as a 'random Hyuuga.'

"Don't worry, Sakura," I heard Tsunade Shishou tell me, interrupting my thoughts. "If the worst gets to the worst, you could always flash him your panties. You'd definitely win then." She finished, cackling evilly.

I felt my face heat up, and I didn't know whether it was from anger or embarrassment.

"Tsunade Shishou, did you, by any chance, have another of your secret meetings with Jiraiya-sama again? You always get much more lewd whenever you spend more time with him than is necessary." I stated, crossing my hands in front of my chest.

"Just shut up and go look for your teammates to give you psyche and encouragement for your exams. It's in about an hour or so. In fact, I would strongly advise you to head to training ground three. That's where they are going to be held."

I huffed in slight anger before deciding to go to the stupid training grounds. Good Kami-sama, my life had reached new heights of suckiness.

When I got to the grounds, every single shinobi of jounin status was _smirking._

Impending doom awaited me. This was definitely a bad omen.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, are you ready?" Naruto asked first, his blue eyes twinkling in mischief.

I smiled. He blanched. "Naruto dear, you are aware that if you've been up to no good prior to my fight, I _will _find you _and _neuter you."

He gulped, before nodding vigorously. I turned to Sasuke-kun. He was tensed. He _knew _anything and everything he said would be used against him, leading me to beat him to an unrecognisable Uchiha pulp.

His eyes narrowed at my smile, and he moved backward toward Kakashi-sensei, who was just as tense as he was. He truly was a genius.

"What d'you guys think are my odds of entering?" I asked casually, putting on my leather gloves. It was about twenty minutes before the exams begun and Shishou, in all her sadism decided to put my fight with man whore extraordinaire last.

The crowds were still filtering in, and in the special tent, I saw Uchiha Taichou and his parents. He was a mirror reflection of his father, down to the stoic, apathetic face. Yes, all Uchiha did have a strong resemblance since they intermarried a lot to keep the sharingan pure, but even then Uchiha Taichou looked like a twenty three year old version of his dad.

"I have to go. Father is going to send aniki for me, and I don't want that to happen." Sasuke-kun said, shoving his hands into his pocket and brooding more than normal. It was no secret he and his dad never got along, primarily because Itachi was his favourite. Sasuke-kun, though, was an all out mama's boy. That pissed his dad off to end, and was one of the main reasons he did it anyway.

The other clans came by. The Hyuugas, Yamanakas, Naras (those lazy slouches were too obvious to miss), Aburames, Akimichis and Inuzukas.

"Welcome to the Konohagakure no Sato ANBU exams." A booming voice begun. Everyone (except the Uchihas and male Hyuugas) groaned. Shishou smirked.

Jiraiya-sama was the commentator.

I sighed. I didn't know whether to be pissed or amused.

For three hours, I sat in the sun cross-legged, waiting for my fight. So far, eighteen fights had taken place, and only a miserable four participants had been accepted into the Black Ops. Two more fights, and it would be my turn.

"Battle number nineteen," Jiraiya-sama's voice boomed across the microphone. "Hyuuga Hashimoto versus Uchiha Shisui."

My head immediately shot up, and my lips curved into a humourless smirk. So _that _was the 'random Hyuuga 'Shisui was fighting. She'd be a good match for him.

Hyuuga Hashimoto was one of the most talented kunoichi in her clan, after Neji, of course. She immediately received favour from Hinata, because she's the one who gave Hinata her self-confidence and strongly encouraged her relationship with Naruto. She was about a year older than me and I was sure she was going to hack the Black Ops, despite the fact that she was fighting an extremely powerful Uchiha.

This was definitely going to be an interesting match. Turning to the special tent, I could see Hiyashi-sama and Fugaku-sama glaring hell fire at each other. Any minute now and blood line limits would be activated.

"Oi, quit it you brats. Clan heads or not, you're not going to bring your petty competitions here. Save it for the missions." Shishou growled loudly.

Said clan heads immediately turned their heads towards Tsunade-shishou. Fugaku-sama's eyes flashed crimson and veins were beginning to form at Hiyashi-sama's face. Their eyes were narrowed dangerously.

"Tsunade-sama, please be a little polite." Shizune turned to both men and attempted smiling an apology.

Suddenly, there was a loud, female battle cry and then a massive cloud of dust. From the cloud of dust emerged Hashimoto, stoic face in place. Then Shisui yelled.

"Hey...can you open up my chakra channels now? I admit defeat. I can't see shit through this dust. I need my sharingan and I can't activate it because I can't get chakra to my eyes. So, Hyuuga, you win. Congrats. Unblock me already, dammit."

Hashimoto moved to unblock his chakra channels. "I apologise, Shisui-san. It could not be helped." When she was done, she bowed and promptly walked to Hinata and Neji's sides. Shisui was muttering something along the lines of being too polite.

Hyuuga Hiyashi was smirking victoriously while Uchiha Fugaku was brooding darkly.

I silently concurred with Shishou. For clan leaders, they really were brats.

"Now, for the battle we've all been waiting for. Shiranui Gemna versus Haruno Sakura."

Suddenly there was pin-drop silence as I walked in the middle of the training grounds. Genma walked in later on, smirking like the devil's advocate. I got into a fighting stance, and Genma pocketed. I frowned. We'd see if he'd be able to pocket after I'd break his hands.

"Fight!" Jiraiya-sama announced.

Suddenly, he disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't sense his chakra.

"Seriously," I muttered. Don't people know that this stunt of disappearing underground does not work on me?

I formed a fist. I moved as much chakra to it as I could. I lifted it up and punched the ground hard, and watched everyone's reactions to a smirked forming on my face as the ground broke apart, rocks unevenly jutting outward causing a major tremor all around. When the dust cleared I looked around and couldn't help but smirk more as I saw the looks on everyone's faces, ranging from shock to terror.

Even the ever stoic Uchihas seemed shocked. Or impressed, I didn't know.

Gemna's face, particularly, as he was trying to balance in the middle of a crack was priceless.

"Found ya." I said slowly.

"It's just wrong for someone that petite to be that strong." I heard Shikamaru's father exclaim in sheer shock.

I slowly lifted my fist form the ground and stood up straight. "Ready to get serious, Genma?" I asked him, still smirking.

He finally got out of the crack he was in, the smirk totally wiped off his face. "Yeah, let's get serious."

Twenty minutes later I was exhausted, injured and not in a very good mood. I had used much more chakra than I had anticipated healing myself in the middle of battle. I had absolutely no intentions of using ninjutsu, but I was definitely desperate.

_Fuck, _my inner said roughly. I concurred.

I did the necessary hand signs. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" I whispered slowly as a shadow clone pouffed beside me. It looked at me and nodded. I disappeared behind where I hoped Genma was.

"Oi, Genma, get the hell out. Let's finish this. I'm tired." My clone whined.

Nothing. The cloud of dust I'd raised was still slightly floating, but it was clearing out.

My clone then begun doing the necessary hand signs. "Suiton: siryuudan no jutsu!" A huge water dragon formed from behind my clone and suddenly started going towards Genma.

"That won't work." Genma yelled, voice hoarse as he did his had signs for some earth jutsu to block it.

"I know." My clone smirked, before disappearing.

"Jackpot!" I yelled, as I run at him from behind in full speed, the chakra glowing on my fist. "Shannaro!"

Just as he was turning to look at me, the shock of defeat visible in his face, I landed a solid hit on his jaw, effectively breaking it with a loud crunch and knocking him out. He fell with a dull thud.

"I would not like to be on the receiving end of that punch." I heard Kakashi-sensei mutter.

I stood there, panting heavily, with Gemna knocked out at my feet with a shattered jaw. I was feeling dizzy, and my world was turning black.

"Welcome to the Black Corps, Haruno-san," was the last thing I heard, in that smooth tenor that I loved so much. I also saw the long black silky hair and the sexy smirk before my world went black.


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm ecstatic, over the moon (or is it over the sun...?) Whatever. I'm soooooo happy. I take it that I have been forgiven, yes? Yes. All the reviews and favourites and the spam I'm getting in my email inbox are just sooo...*sigh* I'm just so happy. Thanks guys. Ya'll be the best.**

**Remember, a review (or ten) a day keeps the writer's block away. (-: I'm such a dottist, I know.**

**Mendoukusei 6.**

I opened my eyes slowly, and the first things I saw were a blonde head, an onyx one and silver one.

"Hey. You okay?" Kakashi-sensei asked me. I blinked a couple of times before I saw my former teammates peering at me. I nodded, and the pain in my head multiplied drastically. Damn chakra exhaustion.

I sat up, being helped by Sasuke-kun, and I somehow found the energy to smile at him in appreciation. Suddenly, Naruto latched himself on me.

"Sakura-chan! You're ANBU now. I'm so proud of you." He mumbled slowly.

This wasn't one of his normal suffocating, rib-crushing bear hugs. It was a truly affectionate hug. Naruto really had matured.

"Thanks, Naruto." I replied, trying to hold back the tears. He let go of me and Sasuke-kun smirked, punching me in the arm lightly. That was equivalent to Naruto's bear hug, but for someone who understands Uchiha-ese, that was just as emotional as he could get.

"That was awesome." He said, still smirking.

Kakashi-sensei messed my pink hair and crinkled his eye, but when it opened again, I could see the pride glowing in it.

"I'm extremely proud of you, my dear. Congratulations." He said softly, his lone eye glowing.

"Thanks." I replied, my voice cracking with emotion.

Just then, the door burst open, and Shisui practically flew in. "Did you see that? Gemna got totally pwned! That was freaking legendary. He's never gonna live this down-"

SMACK! Sasuke-kun smacked him at the back of the head, promptly shutting him up.

"Oi, what the hell was that for, gaki?" Shisui asked, as he rubbed the back of his head.

I glared at him. "You interrupted a very nice team moment, kono baaka. I'd have smacked you way till the Nara forest myself. Be thankful that Sasuke-kun did it instead."

"What can we do for you, Shisui?" Kakashi-sensei asked, seemingly calm though there was an edge of irritation in his voice.

"Meh, just wanted to come check on my future teammate. Itachi and Genma are waiting for her. She has to go get her tattoo and her ANBU uniform. Then she has to go see Godaime so that she can officially be integrated into the Black Corps. Kakashi-senpai you need to be there too, since you're a captain and all. Any of you seen Hyuuga and Shikamaru? Jeez, for ANBU captains, they sure are lazy ass escapists."

I frowned. I really hated this habit of people talking about me like I'm not even in the room. I got out of the bed and stood between Naruto and Kakashi-sensei. They got the point. We slowly walked out, heading to the ANBU headquarters to meet up with my team and head on to get my tattoo.

As we walked, I asked if the tattoos really were as painful as they seemed. I remembered when Naruto was getting his. He screamed like a little child. Apparently the pain was unbearable, though being Naruto, I thought he might have been exaggerating a bit.

"It's tolerable." Sasuke-kun muttered.

We got to the entrance and we found Uchiha Taichou and Genma (who's jaw was fully healed by Shizune) waiting for us. Genma was actually smirking, trademark senbon in his mouth.

"Congrats kid. I honestly wasn't expecting that. And that left hook...good stuff. I wonder though how lethal the right one is." He drawled.

"You don't really wanna know." Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and Sasuke-kun replied in unison. I smirked. They should know. They've all been the receiving ends of my right hook more often than not.

I turned to look at my now-ANBU captain. As usual, his apathetic face showed nothing.

"Congratulations." He said.

"Thank you, Uchiha Taichou." I replied, mentally praising myself for succeeding to suppress a blush.

Then he smirked, and a lump started forming in my throat. "Ah, now that we are on the same team, I suggest we begin referring to each other on first name basis, don't you think, _Sakura?_"

My brain went blank and my knees got weak. I felt the heat flood to my face. My heart was beating twice as first in my chest.

I think I was beginning to hyperventilate.

Was it just me, or the way Itachi Taichou said that particular statement was unusually..._sensual?_

Glancing at my former teammates, I could see Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei's eyes slightly narrowed, very subtle signs that they were not amused. Shisui and Genma were smirking as if a ban on smirking was coming into effect the next day. Naruto, as usual, had absolutely no idea what was going so, so he was blissfully oblivious.

Good. It wasn't just me. Uch-er, Itachi Taichou's voice _did _seem sensual.

Finally managing to gather up courage, I looked up at Itachi Taichou's face and nodded. "Yeah. First name basis would be fine." I mumbled, blushing like an academy school girl.

"Very well, then. Let us head to get your tattoo. Hokage-sama is expecting us soon." He said, voice serious and still smirking that panty-dropping smirk of his. Just before he looked away, he made eye contact with me for a few seconds, and I swear his eyes had darkened considerably.

I silently gulped. Oh yes, my life had changed, from this second onward.

"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, what's up? You okay?" Naruto asked, looking at me and grinning. I smiled at him.

"I'm fine. Look, we're here. Let me go inside." I left them standing there, looking at my back, and I could feel a particularly dark gaze burning at my back.

I entered the room and heard Shizune nee-chan call out to me. "Finally you've arrived. I was almost sending out someone to come for you."

About twenty minutes later, I had my right shoulder sore and slightly red where Shizune nee-chan had tattooed the ANBU sign. I thought about walking all the way to the Hokage tower, but decided against it and teleported myself there instead.

"You know, I really hate it when you guys do that. Can't you just use the door, for goodness' sake?" Tsunade Shishou grumbled, as the last of the cherry blossoms of my teleportation blew away somewhere. I looked around, and saw quite the crowd of people gathered. Kakashi-sensei and his team, my team, Neji and his team and Shikamaru and his team.

Shikamaru, being Shikamaru, yawned loudly with absolutely no shame whatsoever. "Remind me why I'm here again? This is so troublesome. I have to come up with new strategies for infiltrating Oto." He said, sounding bored.

Hana looked up at him, eyebrow raised. "Dude, you were sleeping." She deadpanned. I wondered where her triplet companions were.

"They're at home, stuffing their faces again. Ma spoils them." She replied, as if reading my mind.

I shrugged, and turned my attention back to Shishou. From the corner of my eye, I saw Itachi Taichou looking right at me. I subconsciously swallowed. Did he have any idea just how piercing his gaze was?

Tsunade Shishou looked at me and smiled. "Congratulations, Sakura. Welcome to the Black Orps. Here's your uniform, and from now henceforth you are chief medic of all ANBU shinobi of this village. You are the one to schedule and perform all their annual checkups and do any and every single thing related to medicine. Your team involves Shiranui Gemna, Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi Taichou. You are to report directly to me about all the medical records of the ANBU."

She gave me my uniform before her face became serious again.

"Now get lost. All of you. I have tonnes of work to do and Chuunin exams are coming up. Kakashi, Itachi, Shikamaru and Neji, I hope you are working towards the security of our competitors, our sensei and myself."

All four geniuses nodded.

"Good, I expect those lists of everyone who's going in the next two days." Ten with that she went back to her paper work as if we weren't even there, with the occasional long slurp of sake from her cup.

This paper work must have been very important if Shishou was doing it without Shizune whining. I made a mental note to ask her about it later.

Outside the huge Hokage tower, I got congratulatory statements my way and slaps on my back. I smiled back and replied accordingly. The last one out was Itachi Taichou.

As usual, I never at all felt his presence anywhere, but I felt my waist being caught in a strong grip from behind before he bent down to my (short) height and whispered in my ear.

"Be at the third training grounds tomorrow at eight in the morning. We shall be doing team dynamics, meaning everyone will be there. Do not be late."

For a few moments, I could not breathe. He was so, _so, _close, and he was maintaining contact at a very sensitive point of my body.

Not to mention his smoother-than-melted-chocolate voice moved straight to my groin. This was not good, not good at all.

"Yes, sir," I croaked, feeling slightly weak at his very intimidating presence and his (very hot, very hard, very masculine) body behind me. I could not even dare turn around to look at him.

Suddenly, his hands were no longer on my waist, and his presence was no longer behind me. Finally having enough courage to turn around and look, all I saw were the last remaining leaves of his teleportation jutsu.

What exactly was going on around here?


	7. Chapter 7

**Attention fan girls, (and the occasional gentleman),**

**Yes, it's rather obvious that Itachi has started showing his...masculine interest in Sakura, and you are going from lime green to forest green in envy. Now, contrary to popular belief, she is not lost and confused and naïve about what's going on. She's just in shock. I mean, fangirling aside, wouldn't you also be shocked if someone like Itachi started pulling moves on you? Yes, so cut her some slack.**

**Onto other much more important news, reviews very much appreciated. :-D**

**Mendoukusei 7.**

I was standing at the third training grounds at eight o'clock in the morning, alone.

I wasn't amused. At all.

When I get my hands on any of those guys, I would beat them up so bad, they would never, ever think of being late for a meeting.

I was starting to stomp my way towards the shopping district in Konoha, when I heard a particular smooth lilting tenor.

"I suggest you patiently wait for them. I will give you ample time to pummel them to your heart's content when they arrive." Itachi Taichou said, smoothly jumping from the branch he was on and landing on the ground.

Was this man really human? I mean, he was perfect. Extremely handsome, powerful and smart.

The inner beast was tamed (partly because she was busy swooning) and right on cue, Shisui and Genma who looked as if they had just got out of bed and teleported themselves here immediately.

Genma still looked bleary. "You sure this is it, Shisui?" his voice was hoarse. He'd definitely just woken up.

"Of course I am Genma. These are the third training grounds, ne?"

"You are late, again. I believe you both have been spending too much time in the dango shop with Kakashi-san?" Itaich Taichou said, stoic face in place as he looked at them.

I begun cracking my knuckles and revelled at the looks of sheer terror on both their faces.

"Oh shit," Genma whispered, absolutely terrified.

"We're totally, undoubtedly, seriously fucked." Shisui said, his sharingan activated in fear. "I can actually see the chakra rushing to her fists."

"Oh, damn straight you are." I replied, sadistically smirking. "Today we shall begin with taijutsu."

Exactly half an hour later, Shisui and Genma were lying on the very battered ground, with very many broken bones, blacked out, thanks to my fists and feet. Kakashi-sensei's team turned up and they had some very sympathetic glances their way.

"Wow," Hana said, looking at the state of the training grounds and the state of my two idiot teammates. "You actually inflicted all this damage on your own?" her canine triplets were walking around, seeming to be in just as much shock as she was. Naruto, Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei were acting as if this was an everyday thing. After all, they had been victims of this more than a few times in the past.

I, on the other hand, was looking rather smug. I was always proud of the destructive power of my strength.

"You guys can take them to the hospital. I really don't feel like healing them. If any of you needs me I'll be in Shishou's office." I had turned away and was on my way to the Hokage tower when Itachi Taichou stopped me.

"Sakura, I'd like to see you." He said. I froze dead in my tracks. I turned around and faced him, nodding dumbly.

"My office in the jounin headquarters would be a more appropriate place to have this discussion. Please, Sakura, allow me lead you there." Itachi Taichou began walking towards said headquarters, as Sasuke-kun and Naruto carried Genma and Shisui to the hospital. Just before I followed my captain, I saw my sensei's eye narrow. He was very suspicious about Itachi Taichou. Very, very suspicious.

An awkward silence filled the atmosphere as I walked behind Uchiha Taichou to his office. We finally got into the building and I tended to realise that every male that looked my way was smirking and every female that looked my way was frowning. I wanted to suddenly snap at someone and ask then what the hell their problem was before I finally came to understand Uchiha Taichou, one of the most eligible bachelors in Fire Country was in the presence of a female.

Ignoring all the stares, I quickened up my pace and was walking beside Uchiha Taichou. We got into his office and my jaw promptly dropped.

It was huge. He had a big ass office, with state of the art everything. There was an executive swingy chair made of pure leather behind a huge oak desk. In front of said desk were two chairs, not as comfortable as the executive one, but they were leather all the same, and very comfortable looking.

There was a huge book shelf that was full of books towards one corner of the office, a coffee machine and a water filter. It was neat, immaculate and expensive, everything only someone like Uchiha Taichou would pull off. I'd been in Kakashi-sensei's office, and it was _nowhere _near what I was seeing now. Even Shishou's office wasn't as immaculate as this.

Well, he was the heir to one of the most powerful clans in Konoha's history.

"Have a seat, Sakura." He murmured, gesturing slightly with his arm at one of the chairs in front of his desk. I sat down, softly mumbling my thanks.

He leaned in front of his desk, right in front of me. "I would like you to recommend me two other medics that we could take with us to the chuunin exams. They should be of a high calibre and their temporary absence should not be enough to leave the staff at the hospital here in a crisis."

His voice was the normal tone, blank as usual, but his gaze was different. His eyes were half lidded and he was looking right at me. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"Well, there's Ino. She'd be good. There's also Nara Emi of the Nara clan. I'm sure she'd be a good asset to the delegation." I said slowly, not really looking him in the eye, or any other part of him for that matter.

I looked down at my hands and found myself twiddling with my thumbs, a very Hinata like thing to do. I was nervous. I knew I was nervous because of Itachi Taichou's presence near me, but I felt as if there was something else fuelling that nervousness.

Suddenly I felt his presence near me. He held up my chin and made me look him in the eye. Immediately we made eye contact, I gasped.

His kekkei genkai was activated, and it was not its usual crimson colour. It had darkened considerably to a rich burgundy, and his eyes were half lidded and glazed over. His lips had curved into a predatory smirk.

Itachi Taichou was aroused. Dangerously aroused, and he looked sexy as hell when aroused.

I felt the moisture drip from my core. My throat was dry and I could not seem to find my voice.

"Tell me, Sakura," he whispered in my ear. "Have you ever been in a relationship before?" His voice was low and husky, and reminded me of crushed velvet.

My heartbeat increased, and so did my breathing. I was feeling lightheaded and my knees were weak as well. I actually found myself leaning against his frame for support. My mouth had gone dry, and I was finding it increasingly hard to moisten it. My brain had promptly shut down too.

Great. Now even I was aroused. Shit, this was not good at all. What if he had plans to take my virginity on his desk or something? Oh my God, I'm only eighteen. I don't wanna lose it yet. What if I get pregnant? I've only just joined the Black Orps. I can't go around getting babies yet. Konoha has enough repopulation going on as it is. What the h-

_Oi, what the hell are you babbling about? The sexiest man in the history of sexiest men has asked you a question and you're here talking nonsense? _My inner asked me. I wondered how she was still able to think straight.

I couldn't even remember what the hell it was he had asked me, but instinct told me to just say no, so I did.

When I saw Itachi Taichou's eyes darken even more, his hand move down to my waist and his hand previously on my chin move down my neck, I made a mental note to never, ever trust my instincts again.

At least when it came to men so powerfully sexy, they promptly shut down my brain functions.

When I finally managed to find my voice and ask him what he was doing, he pulled me even closer to him and promptly sealed his lips onto my neck.

That was it. I let go of myself and leaned my whole body weight into him. He didn't seem to mind though. He put both of his arms around my waist and pulled me flush onto his body. I could feel the hard muscles on his chest and his rock hard abs.

God this man was in shape. Suddenly he did the unexpected.

He began sucking on my neck. I couldn't help it. I let out a moan I didn't even know I was holding in. Suddenly he stopped, and at a speed that only an Uchiha could pull off I found my back onto my wall with my (_exceedingly sexy, _my inner said) captain supporting me with his body on said wall.

I swallowed almost nervously. "I-is there something wrong, T-taichou?"

He looked right at me, his eyes till darkened from desire. He only just smirked, before he lowered his head to my neck and started sucking on it again. I couldn't help but angle my neck to the side, to give him more room to suck on me.

He then moved his lips up to my ear and whispered in his husky voice "You are _mine._ When the time is right, I _will _claim you, permanently."

He finally let go of me, and gently put me on the floor. My knees still felt weak, but I managed to stand. I didn't even look at him. Immediately I felt my knees were steady enough, I walked out of his office.

I could not believe it. I had just been claimed, by the heir of the Uchiha Clan, and I had the red, burning hickey on my mark to prove it.

**PS Soooooooooooooo sorry I haven't been updating as frequently as I promised. My lecturers decided to unleash their inner sadists and pile on me assignments as if they were on a mission. I can't promise how fast I'm gonna update, but I promise I'll try to update it as frequently as I can. Thanks for all the reviews and faves. :-D**


	8. Chapter 8

**You, my dear readers are all a bunch of PERVERTS! Shame, shame. :-p**

**Mendoukusei 8.**

I was standing in front of my bedroom mirror, scowling at my reflection.

It was the next morning after my...confrontation with Itachi Taichou and the hickey he gave me was still sore and red and very, very visible. I gathered healing chakra on the tips of my index and middle fingers and gently placed them on my neck.

"Horny bastard. Horny sexy bastard. How dare he do that? In his office of all bloody places. He's really got a nerve. Who the hell does he think he is? Clan heir or not, he has no right whatsoever to go round assaulting any woman he dee-"

"Sakura-chan, we must head to –"

"Arrrrgh!"

I nearly jumped three feet in the air when I heard Naruto's voice. I turned to him, hand on my chest.

"Naruto! Don't you dare scare me like that again. Jeez, when the hell did you get in here?" I asked, slightly aghast.

Naruto, dense as usual, just smiled his brighter-than-the-sun smile and waving his hands defensively in front of himself, laughed awkwardly. He then begun scratching the back of his head, a habit acquired from Kakashi-sensei.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan. I just wanted to tell you that we should head to Tsunade no baa-chan's office. She said all ANBU operatives should assemble on top of the Hokage Tower."

I raised an eyebrow. Since when did Naruto have a good command of language? "Naruto, d'you even know what that means?" I asked sceptically.

"Nope. I aked Shisui and he just said everyone should get the hell up to the Hokage Tower."

It was moments such as these I was sure Naruto was in the ANBU either because his father was the Yondaime Hokage or he had the nine-tails. There was just no way anyone could be this intellectually deprived and survive the shinobi elite.

Fifteen minutes later (after Naruto insisted we 'pass by' Ichiraku's. His definition of passing by meant inhaling four bowls of ramen in exactly two minutes and fifty three seconds. Yes, I did count) we were standing in Shishou's office with a whole bunch of ANBU and jounin, some of whom I knew and some of whom I didn't.

I scanned my eyes round the room and saw Itachi Taichou. Our eyes locked, and try as I could, I could not suppress the light tint of red on my cheeks. I subconsciously lifted my hand to the right part of my neck. Bieng an Uchiha and having perfected the state of being emotionlessly stoic, his blank face showed nothing. Even his eyes were blank pools of onyx.

Hana, contrary to popular belief was uncannily perceptive. "Yo, Sakura. What's good?" she asked, looking right at me. I nodded stiffly, and she narrowed her eyes. She knew something was up, but I decided to talk to her later.

Yamanaka Ino suddenly appeared from nowhere and murmured in my ear "We need to talk."

Great. Fucking marvellous. I was beginning to brood.

Suddenly Tsunade Shishou barged into the room, and immediately stalked to her table. She sat down and rested her hands underneath her chin. Every shinobi in the room, particularly the ANBU, stiffened.

Shit was about to go down. When you see Shishou rest her arms under her chin, things were very, very bad.

"We leave for the chuunin exams in three hours. Pack up whatever is necessary. Jounin-sensei, inform your students immediately. ANBU captains and your teams, stay behind. We need to talk security. I'll explain what's going on as we move. Dismissed!"

Immediately the rest of the shinobi filed out, no doubt in absolute shock, Shishou looked hard at us. I could see the steely determination in her eyes. She only got that look when she was having some serious internal turmoil.

"Something is going on. I have a very bad feeling about these chuunin exams." She began.

Kakashi-sensei's stare became more intense. Neji frowned, as Shikamaru's brow furrowed. Itachi Taichou's face was still blank.

"Jiraiya and his people are out there, but I doubt if they'll be back by the time we leave. We'll probably have to meet up on the way to Iwa." She continued.

Nobody said anything or moved. The tension was so strong, you could cut through it with a kunai.

I slowly gulped and moved forward toward Tsunade Shishou.

"Shishou, what's wrong?" I asked gently.

She looked up at me, her eyes nearly tearing. "Please," I whispered softly. "Tell us."

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, she shoved a crumpled, almost torn piece of paper in my hands. Looking around, everyone, excluding my captain was slightly shocked. Itachi Taichou's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

I looked at the paper and read it out loud, apprehension flooding me the whole while.

"We will attack you anytime in the near future, especially when your guard is down. This time we will not hold back. Remember, when we attack, we will attack to kill. Watch yourself, Godaime Hokage."

That was it. The note was typed, meaning it was almost impossible to trace it back, even by shinobi standards. I gripped it in my hand so tight, my strength was beginning to tear it even more. I found myself shaking in rage, then felt a warm powerful hand trying to open up my fist.

My head immediately shot up, and I was pumping chakra to my other fist, ready to strike, before the figure behind me lowered his head to whisper in my ear.

"Realx, Sakura. Let go of the note. Your destruction of it will not do us any good." Itachi Taichou said, placing his hand on my waist, trying to relax me.

Why did he _always _have to go for my wiast? And why did his voice always have to be smoother than melted chocolate? Did he know what he did to my hormones when spoke like that?

I slowly relaxed, and finally let go of the note. I felt him rub his thumb gently on my waist, then he run his lips across my neck, right on the spot where he was too busy sucking on the previous day in his office.

I shivered slightly. I had to clench my teeth to stop the moan from coming out.

Suddenly he disappeared, leaving me with a temperature of forty degrees. God, he was so freaking HOT! Literally.

"Do not worry about this, Hokage-sama. Shisui and I are going to have the Konoha Police force investigate it with immediate haste. I shall also inform father to supervise the investigations when we are away at Iwa." Itachi Taichou said, voice impassive.

Shishou sighed, before waving her hand at us, telling us to go pack up and get ready for the journey to Iwa.

Another half hour passed, before I found myself in front of the village gates, along with my ANBU team, Kakashi-sensei and his team, Shikamaru and his team and Neji and his team. Along with us were the jounin sensei and their little genin, Ino and Emi. In total we were about seventy five delegates.

"It's not fair. Why do you get to be looking so awesome in your ANBU uniform and I'm stuck looking like a nun?" Ino whined, her blue eyes ablaze with disappointing rage.

I looked at her and smirked. I had on my new uniform, with my katana strapped to my back, and she just had her normal medic's uniform on, though she'd definitely rolled her skirt up a little more so that it was a few inches above the knees. She kept on complaining why it wasn't any tighter.

Hana raised an eyebrow at her unending whining. She glared back, replying "It would look much more appealing if it was tighter," as she constantly tugged at it.

I decided to move away from Ino. I was slowly walking towards Emi, when I was grabbed by my upper arm and pulled off into a corner by Sasuke-kun.

"What the hell was that in Godaime's office this morning? What stunts was aniki trying to pull off?" he hissed at me, eyes narrowed.

Ah, so he was onto me. I raised my eyes toward the direction of our current topic of discussion, and I saw Kakashi-sensei having a discussion with him. It was hard to try and decipher what they were talking about, as both geniuses showed as much emotion as rocks, but judging by Naruto's fierce scowl towards my (sexy) captain, was very much aware of their conversation.

I let a small smirk curve on my lips. "Nothing, Sasuke-kun. He was just trying to relax me so that I could let go of the note. Why do you suspect anything?" I asked.

Sasuke-kun only just glared at me fiercely his Uchiha patented glare. I glared back, just as fiercely, and he let go of walking before walking towards where Kakashi-sensei was reading so that they could brood together.

I looked away, at a particular tree, huffing at my ex-teammates behaviour. I knew he meant well, but there were other ways he could show his concern. I turned back to face the delegation when Shishou yelled that we better start moving our lazy asses, when my eyes locked with Itachi Taichou's. I couln't pull my eyes way from his blank gaze.

Then suddenly, I saw a bright blaze in those onyx pools of his, and when his lips curved up into that sexy, predatory smirk, I could not help but shiver in delicious trepidation of the next few days of travel that lay ahead.

Oh yes, he was making it abundantly clear. I was his. He was blatantly making me know. _I was his. _He promised me that when the time was right, he'd claim me permanently, and he knew that I knew there was no other option. Not that I wanted there to be any other option.

Uchiha Itachi _always_ got what he wanted, no questions asked.


	9. Chapter 9

**You know, I understand that there are very, very many people out there who generally have nothing meaningful to do with their time and lives, hence coming to and commenting bullshit on people's stories. This inarealpickel or whatever the fuck his/her name is one such character. Thought I dealt with them on my previous story, but hey, nothing absolutely meaningful to do with their lives. **

**The idiot should write a story or two, so that I can see how good their skills are.**

**Anyway, my apologies for the above. My mood has been significantly ruined, thanks to the above retard. Onto the story, then.**

**Mendoukusei 9.**

I was standing on the branch of a huge oak tree on high alert.

The rest of the delegation had gone on ahead, and Naruto and I were some of the few ANBU who stayed behind to see if there would be any threats from the back.

"See or hear anything, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked silently.

"Nope, nothing. I think we should catch up with the rest." I replied. He nodded once and took off.

I had come to realise that when on duty, Naruto was the epitome of serious shinobi. There was no fooling around when work had to be done.

Either he really had grown up, or Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun (among others) had beaten that particular lesson into him.

Probably the latter.

Another thing I had come to realise was the immense speed ANBU shinobi tended to travel at. As much as speed was important, this was just ridiculous. A journey that normally took an hour would take forty five minutes, preferably less. It pissed me off, since I'd have to force much more chakra than I normally did to my legs, and it was no secret that my chakra reserves weren't exactly the highest.

We finally got to where the rest of the delegation were, Naruto not breaking a sweat, me panting as if I was from running a hundred metre sprint.

God, I hate that tailed-beast even more, right now.

Since it was already evening, there were three fires cackling and everyone seemed to be comfortably eating their food.

"What's the situation?" Neji asked us when I finally regained my breathing.

"Clear," Naruto replied for both of us, as I tiredly walked toward Ino. I plopped myself next to her, taking the food she had so gracefully taken for me.

"Thanks," I smiled, tiredly at her. She nodded her assent, before leaning in closer and whispering conspiratorially in my ear, "Tell me, why does the sexiest man that has ever walked Konoha grounds have his sights on you?"

I only just avoided chocking on my food. I swallowed it in a large gulp before turning my head to look at her. "What d'you mean?"

Ino looked right at me, frowning slightly, eyes narrowed. I knew that look. There was no way she was letting me go without giving her the information she wanted.

"Don't get all smart with me. You know exactly what I'm talking about. The way your captain looked at you before we left. He looked like he wanted to devour you. What was that all about?"

I quickly turned my head, making sure she did not see the heat rising to my cheeks, but being Ino and being my best friend since our pre-academy days, I knew she knew I was blushing. I had to get the hell outta there.

"I'm going to the river to freshen up. I won't be long." I said quickly, before gathering up my stuff and walking toward where I knew the river would be.

We had set camp on the border of Fire and Wind Country, and being evening, it was starting to get slightly colder, since we were nearing desert. We were still slightly in our terrain though, and Shishou's plan was to cross Wind country in at least four days. Nobody likes the frigidity of deserts at night.

So here I am, happily walking towards the river. I get there, set my things down and decided to go check the temperature of the water. It was cold, but at least I could take a decent shower.

I went back to the campsite later on after my bath towelling my hair and feeling refreshed to all the fires put out and everyone in their respective tents. For a minute, I stood there, gaping like an idiot.

Where the hell was I going to sleep?

"You seem to be confused, Sakura." I turned at the mention of my name, though I already knew who it was, since only one person in the world would make my name sound smoother than melted chocolate.

"Itachi Taichou," I begun nervously, clutching one strap of my bag as my hand on my towel tightened.

"Um, hey. I'd just g-gone down to the river to take a shower. I was kinda filthy and really didn't want to go to bed like that, you know? I was sweating like a pig because of how fast we were travelling. Yeah, er, so I came back and I found this," I said, pointing towards the tents. "And really, no sleeping arrangements that I'm aware of hav-"

"You will be sleeping in my tent."

I froze dead. My inner was rubbing her hands and cackling with perverted glee. I was finding it increasingly hard to _attempt _to think.

_Ask him where he's sleeping. Or better yet, ask him if his sleeping bag is big enough to fit one and a half, _my inner was asking, literally drooling.

**One and a half? What the hell d'you mean one and a half? **I asked her, trying to figure out her illogical thinking.

_Jeez, outer, you're so stupid. If his sleeping bag was big enough to fit two, we'd obviously share it-_ I snorted _–but they'd be some space left between us. If it fit one and a half, we'd have no space between us and he'd end up holding us in his arms as we slept and we'd feel his delicious abs on us. Perhaps he'd even get his hands under our top and re-_

I slammed my inner and her perverted thoughts to the farthest recesses of my brain, reminding myself to thoroughly insult her later on.

I looked up, only to see my captain looking at me, blank apathetic face on as usual. Had he seen my who-

"You seem to have had a slight mental debate about my previous statement," he deadpanned.

Okay, yes. He had seen my whole mental debate with my stupid inner. God, what a pervert, my stupid inner was.

"Um, Itachi, Taichou, may I ask you a question?"

He looked at me.

"Where are _you _sleeping?"

He turned around and started walking towards the campsite. "In my tent," He said, his voice slightly husky.

I gulped. Something was going to happen. I just knew something was going to happen.

My inner, throwing confetti, ribbons and dancing around with pom poms wasn't really helping either.

I decided to follow him, since I didn't have any choice in the matter.

We slowly walked towards his tent, and when we got to it, he moved the flap to the side for me to get in first. I blushed slightly, before mumbling my thanks and entering, he following closely behind.

Inside the tent, I went to one corner and dumped my bag there. It was relatively bigger than all the others, seeing as he was an ANBU captain and all. I removed my sleeping bag ready to unroll it, but he stopped me.

"Do not." He said quietly.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, before looking up at him and asked him why.

"It is going to get colder later on the evening, seeing as how we are close the deserts of Wind Country. The only way we will have to avoid risking hypothermia is-"

"To share body heat," I finished breathlessly, as I blushed about thirty shades of red.

I dropped my red-faced expression, but I could practically hear his smirk.

"Very well then, I suppose it is time for us to sleep," he murmured, his lilting tenor dropping an octave lower.

_Oooooooh, his voice promises very many delights, _my inner said, voice sultry.

I felt my knees go weak, because I knew what she was saying was very true. She was the resident expert on all things perverted, after all.

Head still down, I crawled into the sleeping bad, facing one end and staying still. All the while, my mind conjured up the number of not-very-innocent things that we could do to each other with the guise of 'sharing body heat'.

Or more specifically, the number of not-very-innocent things _he _could do to _me_.

Apparently, Itachi was a master of seduction. He had perfected it to an art, to a level that only Kakashi-sensei had reached. Most of the covert, dangerous missions they were sent to involved women. Lots of women who would not speak unless you had the sex appeal to match Itachi Taichou's and Kakashi-sensei.

I was still in thought until I felt Itachi Taichou slide into the sleeping bag behind me. I closed my eyes tight and clutched my thighs together so hard they actually hurt. The suspense in my mind was so intense, I actually didn't feel him wrap his arms around me until he pulled me flush against his chest. My eyes immediately opened wide when I felt his abs on my back and his chest on my shoulders.

I gasped.

"Relax, Sakura," he whispered in my ear as he tangled our legs together in the sleeping bag. His other hand was moving up and down my side, and I was beginning to pant. My brain cells promptly decided to stop functioning, as my inner did what she did best in such situations, turned into a puddle of goo at the base of my brain.

Why does she always leave me when I need her most? I mean, really? Jeez, she's so lame.

"As much as I would love to claim you now, current circumstances cannot allow me to do that. Of course I can tell that you are a screamer." He went on, still in that low husky voice. "Yet again, claiming the woman you want does not have to take place immediately. We could always do it step by step."

By this time, I was sure that I was redder than a tomato. I was blushing so hard, the heat must have been radiating outwards.

_Damn, he's good,_ my inner sighed in her gooey state. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Before I could come up with anything meaningful to say, he turned me around in a flash and crushed his lips onto mine.

It seems his speed really did have other applications other than the battle field.

My senses were on overload, as I had never been kissed with such domination like that. It was a gentle kiss, but as Ino said (she was the resident expert on all things...carnal...?) a guy can communicate a lot in one kiss, and I could tell Itachi Taichou was telling me between the two of us, he'd be the one dominating.

I wasn't complaining. I found it a massive turn on if the guy dominated.

Absolutely unconsciously, I found myself responding to his kiss. I moved closer to him, and when I put my hand on his chest, I found that he had no shirt on.

Holy shit.

He slanted his mouth, deepening the kiss, and I just couldn't hold back any longer. I moaned, long and low.

Then he snapped.

Suddenly, he slipped his hand under my ass and squeezed. I gasped in indignation, and just before he plunged his tongue into my mouth, he smirked on my lips.

Shameless pervert. Two could play at that game.

I decided to move my hands up and down his glorious Greek god-like torso, slowly, from his chest, down to those delectable abs and up again. His muscles rippled under my palm (Goodness, he was in _excellent _shape) and when I lightened my touch to a fleeting caress, I felt him stiffen. I smirked on his lips.

As I was still feeling awesome at how I could provoke a (_SEXUAL!)_ reaction from the king of sex gods himself, he immediately pulled me towards himself, and when our hips made contact, he ground into me, hard.

Obviously, whoever that claimed he was a master a seduction was very, very right.

That was it. I mewled into his mouth, trembling in arms at the sheer pleasure he could give with just one action. The fact that I could feel his erection was not helping. He kissed me again, then circled his hips into mine like before, causing me to all out scream in his mouth.

If it wasn't for the fact that he was kissing me, I'm sure my scream would have been heard in Kumo. Even when he stopped, my body was still reacting to that mind-numbing pleasure.

He broke the kiss and looked at me. His sharingan was activated, and it had darkened into a very, very deep maroon, his eyes were darker than they were a couple of days ago in his office, when he first claimed me.

Not to mention that arrogant, (sexy), predatory smirk of his.

Sasuke-kun was right. Itachi Taichou may have been a little _too _used to getting what he wanted.

"I told you you were a screamer," he murmured on my lips, before he lowered his head and dutifully started sucking on my pulse.

Just as my lashes were lowering, to thoroughly enjoy what he was doing to me, I heard an all too familiar voice at the entrance of our tent.

"Aniki, it's your team's turn to watch. One of you should wake up Hyuuga's team when you're done." Sasuke-kun muttered, interrupting a very pleasure filled session.

I whimpered in disappointment when he pulled his lips off my neck and loosened his grip on my waist. He sat up straight, apathetic face back in place. By then he had deactivated his bloodline limit.

"Very well, otouto. You may leave. Thank you." His smooth, lilting tenor was back, but it was still slightly hoarse, due to arousal. He turned to me, and I swear his eyes darkened again.

"Let's go. Wake Genma. I shall wake Shisui. You may have to...straighten up before you leave the tent." He said as he stood up. He then tied up his hair into its usual ponytail and walked out when he was done.

I crawled out of the sleeping bag to my belongings to get my sandals. I searched for my compact mirror and when I opened it, I was too shocked to even react.

My hair was a mess, all tussled up. A hickey started forming where Itachi Taichou was sucking before, and my lips had swollen to about two times their normal size.

I brushed my hair a little, before healing the hickey. I got out and walked to Genma's tent to wake him up for watch. He disappeared to the west, I headed to the south.

Even as I sat on the tree branch, looking out for any potential danger, I could not help but go back to that intense make out session with my captain.

A shinobi's life was never guaranteed, but what I knew for fact was that the Black Orps had definitely changed my life. I just didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Mendoukusei 10.**

"FOOOOOOOOOOREHEAD-GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL!"

"ITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHI-TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAICHOUUUUUUUU!"

Two obnoxiously loud blondes yelled in front of our tent at God-knows-what time. Itachi Taichou's body stiffened, and I growled slowly in irritation.I was nicely encased in my captain's arms, enjoying his body heat (as I had the past three days).

"Wake uuuuuuuuuuuuuup, Saaaaaaaakura-chaaaaaaaaaan, Itaaaaaaaaaaaachi ! Tsunade no baa-chan said we should be getting into Iwa in a coupla hours. It's time for !"

Naruto just never knew when to shut the fuck up. "Can I go and pound him till Kumo?" I asked, my face buried in my captain's very well muscled chest. He responded by pulling me closer to himself, slightly shifting in the process, rendering my throat dry.

_Kya! Did you feel his abs? Oh, he should do that all the time, just keep on rubbing his glorious, deliciously sexy body on us. _My inner, who had somehow managed to stay in solid state kept on saying in my head.

I was forced to entangle myself from Itachi Taichou and get up and prepare myself for the good times that awaited us at Iwa. Up till this point, the retardrd that sent Shihsou that note had not attacked her yet, but were always alert and on the lookout for anything that seemed remotely suspicious.

For the past three days (since that very...eventful first night) this is how we'd always been woken up. Naruto and Ino would stand in front of our tent and promptly yell at the top of their lungs. Apparently they wanted us 'to wake up and not delay everyone else coz they were waiting for us.' Contrary to popular belief, Itachi Taichou was not a morning person, like me. He did not like waking up at the wee hours of the morning to do _anything. _He was more of a nocturnal person, doing his things late into the night. It would be more than expected, therefore, that once we'd settled into his sleeping bag and draped our bodies around each other, waking up would be a problem. Which woman would _ever _want to wake up from Itachi Taichou's arms?

Twenty minutes later (after smirks from the shinobi and death glares from the kunoichi) we were all prepared and ready to go. Yet again, our delegation for the chuunin exams set out.

Three hours of ridiculously fast travelling, (we had to wait for the rest of the delegation, namely the jounin-sensei and their little students, which meant another two hours of waiting) we recognised the ragged, dry, rocky, boring terrain that consisted Earth Country.

I really hated this country. Believe me, it wasn't because Iwa and Konoha were just naturally mutual enemies, it was because it was just...boring. Yes, Suna was in the middle of a never-ending freaking desert that had wind storms that would go on for _days,_ but at least it had _wind. _Earth country was just rocks, and cracked earth.

Which was really good for breaking up and turning into sand.

Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and Sasuke-kun immediatey sprinted onto the strong wall that protected Iwa when they saw me just randomly walk into the clearing, about a kilometre from the gates of Iwagakure no Sato. All the other shinobi just looked at them as if they were retarded.

Uchiha Taichou actually sprinted to join them. He really was a genius.

My fist landed on the ground, and the second the chakra burst from my hand, the ground around us begun shaking, as the cracks got bigger and the ground broke apart, dust raising from all over the place, rocks randomly jutting out at odd angles, and sending a big ass tremor around the area. (A three kilometre radius, I later came to find out. The smug smirk on my face said it all.)

The Tsuchikage, along with a good chunk of his shinobi came out in full force, face to face with a smirking Shishou, and grumbling Konoha Shinobi, sprawled all over the place due to the imbalance of my random urge to...change the scenery.

"Very good, Sakura. And that was quarter your chakra?" she asked, looking the Tsuchikage in the eye.

"A third, actually" I corrected, watching some of the Iwa shinobi blanch when they realised the crack that caused all this destruction begun at the point where my fist was in contact with the ground.

At least, what was left of the ground.

"Konoha is in the house, ladies and gentlemen," I muttered, smirking like the devil's advocate.

"Good afternoon, Sandaime Tsuchikage. I present to you my delegation to this year's chuunin exams," Shishou said, waving her hand airily behind her. Itachi Taichou suddenly appeared at her side, apathetic face in place. Kakashi-sensei, Shisui, Gemna, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Hana and myself right behind them, ANBU masks off. "And this," she gestured toward us "is my personal guard. The rest of the Black Orps of my village that are here," Shakamaru, Neji and their respective teams appeared from out of nowhere, "are protection for my delegation, as you can see consisting of my little genin, their jounin-sensei and my medics."

"Welcome, Godaime Hokage," he replied through clenched teeth. "Please, come in." He gestured with his hand stiffly, leading us into the gates of his village. The shinobi and kunoichi kept on glaring at us, totally suspicious.

It was promising to be an exceedingly entertaining month or so.

"Tsunade, my dear," I heard a deceptively sweet voice, followed by a very flowery scent.

"Shit," I heard Shisui's muffled curse, and promptly came to the conclusion that he (and a good deal of other male shinobi) was having a rather heavy nosebleed.

"Mei...such a pleasure to see you in such a dreadful place!" Shishou exclaimed, quite happy.

Terumi Mei, Godaime Mizukage, in all her divaness had arrived. She promptly glomped Shishou, sharing in their embrace for a good three minutes or so. (the Tsuchikage's eyebrow was twitching at this point, making it exceedingly hard to hold in my snorts.)

Suddenly, she turned to me and smiled. "This must be your apprentice, Tsunade dear," she said, stretching out her hands to glomp me as well, or maybe she just wanted to suffocate me to death with her rather huge chest.

"What's your name, darling?" She asked me when I finally managed to gasp enough oxygen in my lungs.

"Haruno Sakura," I replied.

Her eyes softened, seemingly looking at me like a big sister. "That's wonderful, darling. I think we met last year, when I was hosting this? So sorry we never got time to bond. I'm sure we'll get along quite well, don't you, sweatheart?"

I smiled warmly, nodding back.

Suddenly, her eyes turned smack to Itachi Taichou, and her smile dissolved into a smirk. "Hello there, Itachi," she said, practically purring.

He turned to her, apathetic face in place. "Mizukage-sama," he replied, bowing like the true aristocrat everyone thought he was. She turned her attention to Kakashi-sensei, smirk still in place, then systematically to Genma, Shisui and Sasuke-kun.

I did not like the way she was looking at them, and neither did any other Konoha kunoichi present.

Later on in the evening, I was laughing and joking around with Ino, Hana and Emi, when my boys, ie Naruto, Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei stormed into our conversation and promptly dragged me to some dark corner.

"What is going on? You can't hide this forever. Tell us, what the hell is going on?" Sasuke-kun growled. I promptly frowned, snatching my elbow from his grip. My frown deepened when I saw that there would be bruises.

"What's crawled up your asses and died? What are you guys talking about?"I asked harshly.

"What's this sudden closeness to Itachi? Last time I checked, new recruits didn't share tents with their captains." Kakashi-sensei responded, his eye narrowed.

"New recruits were never so close to their captains anyway," Naruto added, nodding his head with his words.

"Did you know it is impolite to bundle a lady in a dark street and harass her for answers, _otouto? " _ We both turned to the direction of the silky voice and standing there in the shadows was one Uchiha Itachi, in all his sex appeal, predatory smirk in place.

It suddenly came to my notice, that he almost always smirks like that when I'm around. The apathetic mask is for everyone else.

_Oh, Good Kami-sama, he just can't get any more delicious, can he? _My inner said, stars in her eyes and she very shamelessly let her eyes run up and down his body.

I silently agreed.

Naruto and Sasuke-kun were letting out slight traces of killing intent. Kakashi-sensei's eye had narrowed down into a slit.

"What is going on, aniki?" Sasuke-kun ground out through gritted teeth. Oh, he was not amused.

Itachi Taichou looked at him condescendingly. "You expect me to spell it out for you, foolish otouto? I thought it was rather obvious," he replied, lilting voice mocking.

Sasuke-kun's eyes flashed crimson, his hands balled into fists. Naruto was almost losing control. He finally snapped.

"What the hell d'you want with her, pervert?" Naruto yelled. Thank God we were in an alley. I don't think I could have managed to take the stares that would have come our way.

"You're not one to talk about perverts, Naruto-kun, though I shall spell it out for the both of you. I have simply come to get the woman I have claimed as mine." He said, no doubt revelling at the rage the two younger shinobi were almost drowning in.

My knees weakened at his voice. My heartbeat increased, my throat dried up, and my brain shut down. Did he know that _I _would be the one to answer the questions later?

Kakashi-sensei had to headlock both Naruto and Sasuke-kun to stop them lounging at Itachi Taichou. He turned his back to him, Sasuke-kun and Naruto yelling and struggling in their respective headlocks to be let go and kill the bastard pervert.

"Break her, Itachi," Kakashi-sensei said with an eerie calmness, "and I swear on Obito's honour _I _will break _you. Painfully,"_ and in his trademark pouf of smoke, he was gone.

He turned to me. I gulped.

"Yo, Itachi Taichou," I said, scratching the back of my head nervously. His smirk only got bigger.

I was doomed.

***Sigh* to be honest, this chapter didn't come out as well as I anticipated. I was going through a writer's block of ridiculous proportions as I was doing this, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, despite the fact that it's not my best.**

**I apologise sincerely for any wasted time on your pat(s).**


	11. Chapter 11

**I have to admit, I'm just **_**blown away **_**at the reviews I've gotten. Thank you all so very, very much. I'm actually speechless. You guys are just wonderful, my darlings. Truly wonderful. *sniff snff***

**A lemon is in the works, probably the next chapter, so all you perverts, sit tight, ne? Good. Now, onwards.**

**Mendoukusei 11.**

Good Kami-sama, my life sucks. Grandly.

It sucks so bad, my near past pales in comparison in terms of the mere suckiness to now. I was sprinting like a runner, trying to get to Shishou for the opening credits of the chuunin exam. At the same time, I was trying to heal this big ass hickey that was red and pounding on my neck. For a medic of my calibre, I was failing spectacularly. It was simply saddening.

How did I get this big ass hickey that was pounding on my neck?

Well, last night, Itachi Taichou told Sasuke-kun, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei, i.e. my boys, that he'd come to claim me, since I was his. This was after they'd very unceremoniously dragged me to some sketchy alley to tell them what was going on, being the over-protective bastards that they are. I sincerely appreciated their actions, for it showed that they actually cared, but couldn't they _for once _act their ages and not half their sandal size? It seemed their respective tempers made them forget I could pound them six ways from Sunday. Speaking of which, I really needed to reinforce that particular fact. We should have a sparring session one of these fine days. Iwa has the perfect environment for going smashy-smashy with people when it got down to it.

Anyway, moving on, after Kakashi-sensei only just restrained his two idiot subordinates from causing an unwanted scene (in a _sketchy alley _in Iwa of all places) he grudgingly accepted our...whatever the hell it was that was going on between Itachi Taichou and myself and disappeared, which I swore was revenge for getting myself noticed by my captain in all the wrong ways.

As if it was even my fault.

So, after that, my captain decided to take me to his room (which was just _massive_, and extremely well furnished and I'm sure that had more to do with his sex appeal than his rank and/or surname) and proceeded to show me what he was intending to do to me (_plus more, _my inner added, as he unapologetically ground his hips into me and sucked on my pulse as if he was on a mission) before we went to Konoha. Due to the sheer amounts of pleasure, I ended up sleeping at God-knows-what-time leading to me oversleeping.

Which was what led to me currently sprinting as if the devil was on my heels, for the chuunin exam was beginning in ten minutes or so.

The saddest thing? When I woke up I already knew today was going to be a bad day. I sighed.

I repeat, my life sucks. Grandly.

I got to where the Konoha shinobi were, and only just stopped short of bumping into Shikamaru. This led me to grumbling why we always had to have lazy ass genius shinobi lying around all over the place causing innocent kunoichi like myself bumping into them. Shikamaru just sighed and said how troublesome it was coming for these chunnin exams and the fangirls needed to stop stalking him etc etc.

I didn't even know Shikamaru _had _fangirls.

I immediately went to Tsunade Shihsou to report my arrival, which made her scream to the whole of Iwa and beyond about my becoming slack, and the tardiness of my former sensei better not be getting to me. The Mizukage promptly whined to her telling her to shut up and save her screaming for the Tsuchikage later. I later found out that both were seriously hangover from over-indulging in sake the previous night. As usual.

I was looking around for Shikamaru to sit with him, because he'd be too lazy to ask me anything about last night, when Ino and Hana yanked me behind some giggling and swooning kunoichi and female medics, and one extremely sexy shinobi.

"What?" I growled. Hana pointed, and started giggling like an academy schoolgirl herself. Ino was just sighing and looked dreamily at said shinobi. Fangirls.

I took a glance the shinobi again, and when he turned, he got into eye contact with me, my mouth went dry.

Standing there in front of us in full ANBU gear was my captain, looking so absolutely sexy, even Adonis would be jealous.

His clothes clung, and I mean _clung_ to his muscles in a way that left very, very little to the imagination. His sleeveless shirt was so freaking tight on his gorgeous torso, then there was the protective gear on top, which was doing absolutely _nothing _to get the attention off his body. His pants were so tight on his long legs, but instead of making him look gay, they actually accentuated their length and power, and my rapidly hyperventilating brain cells were telling me that a kick from him would horribly destroy muscle and shatter bone. His gloves, stopping right under his elbow, were fingerless, like Kakashi-sensei's and Naruto's, giving his long artisian fingers much more attention. His hair was tied in its usual ponytail at the nape of his neck, falling in between his shoulder blades, right in the middle of his back, the bangs beautifully framing his face.

The fact that he was in a relaxed stance, leaning against a tree just added onto his sex appeal.

I mean, I saw him ANBU gear a lot, it just never accentuated his sex appeal all those other times.

Probably because I was busy fighting for my life and/or depleting my chakra trying to save someone else's.

_Wh-wh-what a sex god, _my inner stuttered.My inner _never _stutters.

"He is just sex on two legs," A Kumo kunoichi breathed. I couldn't agree more.

An Iwa shinobi snorted, under his breath asked if his pants made him look gay. The immediate perpetual smacks at the back of his head from Kunoichi from all villages answered his question, and as Ino put it, this _is _Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Itachi _does not _do gay.

He looked right at me for about three seconds, and I was too powerless to look away. He smirked, making some kunoichi actually faint.

"Hello, Sakura," he said in his smooth, lilting tenor, voice sexy as always.

"H-Hello, Itachi T-Taichou," I stuttered back, my face flooding with colour, partly because of my memories last night, and partly because he singled me out in his greeting.

He turned back to watching the fights, and Ino and Hana (again) pulled me conspiratorially a little further away from everyone else. I was now sitting a little behind Shishou and the Mizukage.

"What did you do last night? Spill it." Hana asked, still giddy.

"No, no, no, Hana. The question should be, what did _he _do to her?" Ino asked, somehow managing to squeal and smile mischievously.

I turned away, so that they would not see me turn about fifty shades of red. "N-nothing happened," I mumbled, wondering why I was stuttering so much today.

Ino and Hana squealed again, before coming to the (right) conclusion that something did indeed happen. They kept on bugging me, asking me questions and just plain out demanded to know what happened.

Just then, the Mizukage turned to me and smirked, and I knew impending doom awaited me.

"So, Sakura, please, do tell us, how _big _is he?" she asked, sounding so shamelessly perverse. I could only bury my face in my hands and groan in mortification as my face turned beet red.

The days went by, and one and a half months later, it was the final day of the chuunin exams. I had taken it upon myself to be staying with Shishou in her room, since it's the only room I was safe from Itachi Taichou and his...intentions. His fangirls, as usual followed him around, squealing and giggling like mindless idiots (some of them actually were) and a few brave ones actually went around declaring their undying love for him.

I occasionally hung out with my boys, with Sasuke-kun constantly grumbling about hooking up with his brother and Naruto constantly yelling about how Itachi Taichou will just defile me and Kakashi-sensei sighing and reading his book. We even had our training session, where I reminded them despite being in ANBU, I could _still_ pound them six ways from Sunday. Shishou made me heal them afterward, but I was glad I got my point across.

I had really missed them, my boys.

It was the evening of the last day when I found Shisui sitting outside the hotel where Konoha shinobi were staying. I had just finished packing, and seeing as I didn't have anything else to do, I decided to go for a little walk around.

"Hey Shisui. What's up?" I asked him as I sat next to him.

"Yo, Sakura. How you doing?" He asked me, looking at me.

We talked for a while, sharing jokes and laughing at some of the things that had happened at these chunnin exams, when the conversation suddenly got to Itachi Taichou.

"I understand my little cousin has developed a sudden, very masculine interest in you, true or false?" he asked, smirking mischievously. I looked away, a slight blush on my cheeks. I nodded slowly.

"That's good for him. The clan's been on his back about getting a girlfriend, though I'm sure they'll be shocked out of their old asses, when they see who he has chosen."

I looked at him, puzzled. "What do you mean who he has chosen?" I asked him.

He looked at me, then back to the sky. "Those old geezers were expecting him to pick some kunoichi from the clan, you know, so the sharingan can remain pure. But Itachi's generation is the purest the sharingan can get. It can't get any better. That's why he's so powerful. He's got all the power an Uchiha can have. They wanna run his life the way they run his old man's. They don't _understand _this is Uchiha Itachi we're talking about. _The _Uchiha Itachi. He's one of the most powerful Uchiha that has ever lived. He _killed _Uchiha Madara when he was _twenty._ He does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Why? Coz he's Uchiha Itachi, he's powerful, he knows it, and no one can tell him shit, not even the council, because he can wipe them out in a millisecond if he wanted to."

I kept silent. "So what's all that got to do with me?" I asked silently, still not understanding him.

Shisui looked at me, his expression serious. Instinct told me to take him seriously.

"Sakura, this has _everything _to do with you. Itachi does _not _wanna marry anyone from his clan. Being the freakish genius he is, he knows it will take another few generations of marrying _outside _it to even try to affect the purity of the sharingan. Apparently, the chicks in our clan are like the dudes: dominating, domineering, and they like to do what they want. They never wanna listen. If you know Itachi as well as I do, he wants to be the one in-charge. He wants you to listen to him. You think Sasuke is an arrogant, egotistical bastard? Trust me, he's got nothing on Itachi. _Nothing._ But the council does not _get _it. They just don't understand. His dad can't even tell him to hurry up with a woman, coz he's surpassed him. There's that respect, you know? And Itachi is a one woman man."

He furrowed his brows again.

"Listen, Blossom. I'm gonna be very blunt with you. As I said, Itachi is a one woman man. He won't go fucking around with one woman and marry another. Granted he's seducer extraordinaire, even better than me, but that's only for missions. He's slept with many women, prostitutes, civilian and kunoichi, but that was only coz he never had a choice. If he's gonna truly fuck you, he's going to make you his. He's going to claim you, and brand you with himself, and if any man has any problems, they are gonna have to deal with him. We both know that is not gonna be pretty."

I could only stare, dumbstruck. He smirked.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but I can guarantee, no one knows Itachi better than I do. Believe me. I love joking, but I am dead serious."

I cleared my throat, sudden shock blocking it. "So when d'you think he's gonna claim me?" I asked.

Before Shisui could answer, a voice behind us answered for him. "Tonight."

Shisui turned around and smirked, before looking at me at clapping me on the back. "I'll tell Ino to come heal between your legs tomorrow morning before we leave. Enjoy yourself, Sakura." He then turned to the person behind us. "Take her slow, man, Don't break her," and in his signature technique, flickered out of there.

I just sat there, scared and anticipating what was going to happen next, before I felt those familiar powerful arms wrap around me.

"It is time for me to make you mine," he whispered darkly in my ear, and all I could do was whimper.

Faster than I could react, I found myself in his (huge) room, on his (huge) bed.

It was gonna be a good night.


	12. Chapter 12

**You know, I just wonder what this world is getting to. I just got a DM from some kid who can't be a day over 14 demanding I write a (and I quote) 'really, like hot, hot lemon that will just let me, like totally lose it' and I wonder what the bloody hell some brat is doing reading my story.**

**Please, if you're underage and are reading this story, just get the fuck off. I can't stand such immaturity when you come to such sites to look for sex. I'm writing a story, not a shitty porno script. Go read stories rated K, since clearly that's what your puny brain can process.**

**Anyway, I apologise for the above. I really don't have the patience to normally deal with such intricate levels of idiocy. To those of the appropriate age, the lemon's finally here. It's gonna be in third person, because that's just how I roll.**

**Mendoukusei 12.**

To say Sakura was shocked would be the biggest understatement in the history of biggest understatements.

Here she was, in a _suite _being straddled at the waist by her ANBU captain, who she's convinced is a sex god, and is about to be ravished like she would never believe by said ANBU captain.

Her inner was actually singing how it was gonna be a good, good night, as she blew up condoms like balloons and stuck them up all over her brain, not to mention declaring, very loudly, the positions she would love to be shagged senseless by Itachi.

Oh God...her face instantly flooded with colour at the thoughts her inner was pulling from the very depths of her subconscious. She decided after she could regain the ability to walk the next day, they would have a nice, long chat about those dirty, dirty thoughts about a certain Uchiha Captain of theirs.

"What is the matter, Sakura? Have you never been ravished before?" Itachi interrupted her thoughts, his voice smooth, an octave lower and slightly rough from arousal.

Sakura had no idea how to answer the question. Her rapidly hyperventilating brain cells were making an attempt (in retrospect, as she'd come to realise later, a very valiant attempt, given the circumstances) to figure out where in the seven hells his shirt had disappeared to. All her sight was assaulted with were sculpted muscles of a lean, toned shinobi, with no doubt one of the healthiest, most well muscled and downright _sexiest _bodies she had ever had the fortune of seeing.

Not to mention pale, smooth skin. She was sure it was even smoother than hers.

Every single part of him was proportionate. From his broad shoulders, his well built chest, his _abs_ (yes, Sakura was an absolute _sucker _for abs) that went well to his very, very low riding pants. Said pants actually accentuated that V-shaped musculature men with Itachi's physique possessed that led on down to-

Sakura subconsciously gulped air. Her salivary glands, like her brain, had gone into permanent shut down and had absolutely refused to provide moisture to her mouth. She had given up finding her voice.

This man was _built to be _a walking sex god among the rest of the mortal humans. As a medic, she has seen all kinds and levels of musculature, and her blank brain was still attempting to function well enough to tell her that she had never seen a physique more beautiful. (okay, maybe except Kakashi-sensei, but he was already taken by Anko).

"Like what you see?" he asked her, voice so seductively low, Sakura wondered whether her lungs were going to bail out on her as well.

"Yeah..." was all she could manage to breathe out. Inner Sakura had stopped blowing her condom-balloons and was now simply drooling.

Itachi simply bent low and captured her lips in an exploding kiss. Ever since that very first time he saw her, all those years ago at the academy swooning over his foolish otouto, he knew she would grow up to be force to be reckoned with. As usual, his sharp intuition never let him down, for at fifteen she had grown to be one of the most accomplished medical-nin in Fire Country, second only to the Godaime Hokage herself and Shizune, her first prized apprentice.

Interestingly enough, that was not what caught his attention. One day, as Kakashi-san was brutally training them for the jounin exams, and his idiot otouto, together with the idiot Yondaime's son, said something about her having to catch up, and she punched the ground right beneath them, causing a minor earthquake that could be felt throughout the village and a crack big enough to swallow both of them.

He knew, from that moment on, that she was going to be his. She was a strong enough ninja to be a powerful kunoichi, and a strong enough woman to manage his clan, just the kind of matriarch he needed.

He also came to later realise, as she grew and literally blossomed in both power and might and feminity, that he found himself suppressing increasingly strong urges to take her and make intense love to her whenever she broke the ground apart as if it was papier-mâché. Nothing turned him on more than the power to destroy and mend in her hands.

He kissed her gently at first, then became slightly rougher later on because he wanted her and he wanted her now. When she shyly begun to respond, he slowly passed his tongue over her bottom lip and nipped at it lightly, smirking when she gasped and slowly opened her mouth for him, which he did not hesitate to plunder.

He shoved his tongue in her mouth, laying his claim to it. He passed his tongue all over her mouth memorising and tasting it, before he coaxed her tongue into a battle of dominance with his, which he won, of course.

When he felt her start to breathe heavily through her nose, he decided to try something else before allowing her to breathe later on. He got into another battle of the tongues with her, coaxing it into his own mouth before capturing on it and sucking on it.

She groaned, long and low, which was the exact reaction he wanted, except that it sent huge jolts of lust straight through his body to his groin.

He was definitely spending too much time with Shisui and Kakashi. Their perverse behaviours seemed to be getting to him.

His mouth let go of hers, and he only slightly hovered over her, looking at her dishevelled appearance. Her pink hair was sprawled all over his pillows, her green eyes a deep green and clouded from lust, her face was red, and so were her lips, very swollen and slightly parted allowing her slow panting to help get oxygen back into her lungs, as most of it had been spent in the kiss they had just shared. She looked breathtaking.

Sakura, at this point was sure that she'd died and gone to heaven. It was just _wrong_ for anyone to be able to kiss like that. What the hell? In fact the very second his lips had come into contact with hers, her whole brain had dissolved into a grey mass at the base of her skull.

Before she could recollect her thoughts, Itachi suddenly latched his lips on her neck and begun to place hot, open-mouthed kisses there, until he stopped at her jugular. That is where he started sucking hard, intending to leave a very big, red mark, which, of course, he would prohibit her from healing. Sakura's eyes fluttered closed, intending to enjoy the pleasure to the very end.

Sakura, on the other hand, started moving her hands across his god-like body. He was so very smooth and muscular, very pleasing to touch. Her hands moved slowly from his upper back, up to his shoulders, down the front to his chest and then his rock hard abs. She just loved the way his muscles rippled as he shifted around under her palms. She kept on exploring his wonderful, gorgeous musculature, spurred on by Inner Sakura who was very much as affected as she was by what his mouth was doing to her. Slowly, her hands moved up against his abs, to his chest, his shoulders and his back. Her hands went lower still, so engrossed to how he'd moved from one part of her neck to suck on the other, that she never really realised what was happening until she squeezed his ass.

They both froze. He stopped sucking her neck, and she opened her eyes, realising on exactly which part of his body her hands _were. _Cheeks turning beet red, she quickly removed her hands from his ass and put them behind her back under her body. Kami-sama, had she just _squeezed his ass_?

He slowly rose his head until his eyes locked with hers. He watched as her eyes widened, as if confirming that she had, indeed, squeezed his ass. An entirely masculine smirk graced his handsome face, and Sakura could only just barely breathe at how sexy he looked then.

"Did you just squeeze my behind?" he asked her, his voice deep and sounding heavy with arousal.

"I-yes, I mean, no, I mean, it was a mistake. I couldn't resi-gaah, no, I me-" Itachi promptly kissed her to shut up her blubbering, and when he was sure she could no longer resist him, he moved his mouth to her ear and whispered "You have become a very naughty girl. It seems I shall have to punish you."

Inner Sakura was too busy having multiple orgasms already to even celebrate.

Before Sakura cold ask what exactly her punishment entailed, her shirt was already removed and had been thrown off somewhere in the room. Itachi, now kissing her, immediately moved his hands behind her and unclasped her bra, removing it and throwing it at the foot of his bed. Then he sat up to stare, and was almost salivating at what he saw.

He skin was porcelain white and smooth. Her breasts were perfect, not too large, and not too small, perfect enough to fit in his hands. Already her nipples were already hardened, and they were begging him to put them in his mouth.

She was no doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen (and Kami-sama _knows _he had seen _many _women).

When she shifted uneasily under him, making her breasts move with her, he felt his cock harden.

Without missing a beat, Itachi immediately descended down on Sakura, and took one hard nipple into his mouth. Sakura gasped when she felt his hot mouth close on her breast, and cried brokenly when he passed his tongue over it, before grazing it lightly with his teeth and suckling hard on it. At the same time he was doing this, he was slowly and deliberately grinding his hips into hers. Sakura's senses were on overload, being assaulted with so much pleasure, her body had no other choice but to respond to everything Itachi was doing to her.

As his mouth was working on one breast, his hand was working on the other touching and kneading, and he slowly removed his mouth form one nipple and moved to the other, leaving his other hand to work on the other breast.

When he was done, he moved a trail of kisses up Sakura's chest, up her neck and captured her lips in another one of his mind blowing kisses. Sakura felt the moisture between her legs, and with the moisture came a dull, almost uncomfortable sensation, something she knew only the man above her could relieve. She wished to tell him so, but seeing as his mouth was hungrily devouring hers, she could only kiss back with just as much hunger and hope he'd work to relieve her soon.

Itachi, in all his years as a shinobi, had never had his own self control tested to the limits than this moment. Having perfected the art of suppressing his emotions and schooling his features to be stoic, he was a master of self control. This woman, under him, responding to every one of his actions was driving him to the brink of insanity, and he hadn't even begun making love to her yet.

He broke their current kiss before quickly removing her pants and underwear, watching her core gleaming with her fluids. He reached out for the mass of pink curls and ran his long index finger across her slit, feeling how wet she already was for him. Immediately he came into contact with her core, she jumped, her back making a perfect arc. His eyes, sharingan already activated and a deep rich maroon, darkened even further as he saw how sensitive she was, and it was only a finger.

His finger still on her slit, he leaned down again, to kiss that sensitive spot beneath her ear, before telling her "You are already so wet for me, my cherry blossom. Are you really that anxious for me to take you?"

All Sakura could manage was a whimper.

Itachi decided to concentrate solely on her neck, placing kisses, nipping and biting occasionally, and running his tongue over those red, angry marks, courtesy of him. Slowly, he deepened the penetration of his finger into her, and slowly pushed inside.

Sakura let out a pleasure filled cry, so overwhelmed at what Itachi was doing to her. Never in her life had she felt so much pleasure shooting all over her body at once. Slowly he set up a pace, pushing his finger in and out of her, making her senses explode with the sensation. He pushed in a second finger, and at a slow pace, pushed in and out of her core, which was wetting his hand with her fluids. Sakura felt a core in her stomach tightening, and the dull sensation between her legs earlier was only being increased. Itachi went on pumping, as the coil got tighter and tighter, and just when she knew she was at the brink of her climax, Itachi whispered darkly in her ear, sounding so perverse, "Come for me, my blossom."

As if he was dominating her bodily functions (which, technically, he was) her body obeyed his command, and she came. Waiting to let out an ear-splitting scream, she felt his extremely talented mouth cover hers again, and she let loose, screaming in his mouth.

Itachi just knew it. When he felt her tight walls contracting and expanding around his fingers, he knew she had reached orgasm, but was holding back without even knowing what she was doing. All it took was the appropriate phrase, and just as he suspected, she let loose. As she was still experiencing her high, he quickly rid himself of his boxers and his trousers, and smoothly pushed himself into her.

Sakura knew it would hurt the first time. She was a medic after all, but what she wasn't expecting was for Itachi to penetrate her in the middle of her orgasm. She felt the pain. It really, really hurt, and try as she might, she just couldn't will the pain away. The tears left her eyes, and she felt Itachi wipe them away with his hands, as he became still inside her, giving her time to adapt to his huge self.

"It hurts," She whimpered.

"I know, my blossom. I'm sorry," he whispered, comforting her slowly, as he wiggled slightly inside her. She wondered how he was not able to even react, even when having sex.

Contrary to Sakura's thoughts, Itachi was sure he had gone insane. He knew she was going to be tight, but he was not expecting her be so mind-numbingly tight, that he would be busy gritting his teeth to prevent himself from yelling in utter, complete pleasure as she went through pain. That first smooth thrust felt so amazingly good, he actually gasped for the first time since he was seven. Kami-sama she was tight. And hot. And wet. And the fact that her walls seemed to continue contracting and expanding around his cock made the pleasure ten times more intense.

In all honesty, this was the best sex he'd ever had in his life, and he'd only just started.

"Are you alright?" he asked, the effort of his self control not to just mercilessly plunge into her showing in his voice.

"Yes," she croaked.

Slowly, he removed himself from her, clamping his jaws together at the way her walls held onto his cock and slowly pushing himself back in, hissing in pleasure. He slowly gained a rhythm, her hips meeting his up as he pushed down and before he knew it he pushing in and out of her in hard, deep and fast thrusts. Her panting only seemed to encourage, and when he saw the pleasured look on her face as well as the thin sheet of sweat covering her body never made him want to stop. He continued thrusting into her, until he felt her muscles start to contract and expand around his cock, and for the second time that night, she came with a loud scream of his name, her core clamping down on him and demanding for his seed. With another gasp and a grunt, he finally came himself, spilling his hot seed into the very depths of her core, and moved over slightly to collapse next to her on the bed.

For the next few minutes, only their panting could be heard, as they regulated their breathing, and Sakura was the first to turn, snuggling next to him and wincing at the soreness between her legs. Itachi immediately wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, burying his nose in her hair.

"Thank you," she whispered shyly, her face red, peeping up at him from her bangs.

"Your very welcome," Itachi replied, sparing her a tired smirk, his eyes softening as he watched her yawn loudly.

"I'm...tired," she said, snuggling closer to his body.

"I know," he whispered back, as he covered them both with the blankets and sheets."Sleep," he told her.

A few minutes later, she was fast asleep, and he joined her, with a small, genuine smile on his face, happy that Sakura was finally his.

**I dedicate this particular chapter to my hero, Itaweasel-hime, an excellent writer, a cool reviewer, Keraii, coz her reviews never fail to crack me up and my hommie, Black-Blue Moonlight Neko, who's just my girl from waaaaaaay back. I love you guys. And I think we should create an Itachi cult or something, seeing as we're all such shameless fangirls. ^_^**


	13. Chapter 13

**It has been confirmed, you guys need help. No seriously. You guys need serious help. The most reviews I've ever gotten for any one chapter in my life, and it's the part where Itachi shags Sakura...you. need. Help.**

***ahem*, moving on, it seems I'm not the only one who took a frigid shower at the end of the last chapter. Well, seeing as we all have our hormones in a semblance of control, let us continue, ne?**

**Mendoukusei 13.**

I was fuming.

I was so infuriated, the only reason some serious destruction had not taken place was because I was naked and covering myself with a sheet.

Kami-sama I was pissed off, so pissed, I was shaking.

Itachi, on the other hand, was his usual apathetic self, though behind that expressionless façade was his extreme anger at being interrupted.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said, voice low and smooth, yet colder than ice and harder than steel, "Uzumaki Naruto, I promise you extremely unbearable pain the moment we arrive in Konoha. I will see to it that you do not leave the hospital for three months after I am done with you. You have exactly thirty seconds to explain to me what business you have in here, and why you have chosen to do it at this particularly ridiculous hour of the _morning_," he hissed, putting particular venom on the word morning.

If I wasn't as pissed off as I was, I'd have swooned. He was just so extremely _sexy _when in a rage.

Inner Sakura, drooling and nose-bleeding simultaneously, simply gurgled her agreement.

Sasuke-kun and Naruto actually paled drastically. They looked almost as white as milk.

How the hell did we get into this situation?

Well, Itachi and I were happily enjoying each other's body heat as we slept together. I opened an eye to find myself wrapped up in his arms, one of my hands on his chest while the other was flung carelessly over his shoulder, our legs tangled together in a glorious mess under the covers. Last night's love-making was absolutely sensational, and despite the soreness between my legs, I would never have wanted my virginity given to anyone else. I pushed myself closer to his god-like body, and he had responded by holding me even tighter and shifting, rubbing his gorgeous, delectable abs on me. I actually felt myself get wetter as my Inner worked very hard not to have an orgasm.

He woke up and looked at me, his onyx eyes darkening, before he smirked. At first I was puzzled, before I felt his hardening cock on my thigh, and as my face turned beet red, he promptly pushed my legs apart, and just as he was about to penetrate me, the biggest idiots to ever disgrace the ninja world burst into the room.

They never knocked; they simply burst in as if they were doing an ambush. They had the audacity to hide their chakras, sneaky assholes.

Itachi and I, on the other hand, immediately froze, and when I felt traces of killing intent leaking out of him, it didn't take long to figure out who had rudely interrupted us. However, being the awesome shinobi that he was, he quickly regained control of himself and stopped releasing his ki.

More or less expecting this behaviour from my teammates, I was intending on soothing Itachi's temper, before the densest blonde idiot, yelled (and we all know how extensive his vocal cords are), "Oh my Kami-sama they actually slept together," and his equally dense brunette idiot best friend muttered,

"Aniki...? Sakura...?"

They wanted to tell me they never saw this coming? Really?

That was Itachi slowly raised from the bed, covering my chest with the sheet with one of his hands, not an ounce of emotion on his face, other than his narrowed eyes.

At that point, Sasuke-kun knew there was a high probability that he'd never be heard from again. Naruto hadn't realised it yet, but later on as it hit him that he'd walked in on us, his impending hospitalization and next probable near-death experience dawned on him. (he had gone through quite a number, since becoming chuunin.)

When I rose from the bed, fist clenched as the other clutched tightly on the sheet, shaking with fury, they paled even more. Then Itachi spoke, and they looked like milk. Their fate was sealed when he addressed them by both names. According to Sasuke-kun, Shisui and Kakashi-sensei, if Itachi addressed you by both your names, you were destined to meet your maker very soon. I highly doubt if his idiot otouto had ever seen him in his full rage, but Shisui and Kakashi-sensei said even fully fledged _jounin _found it hard to breathe when he released his full killing intent.

"What do you want?" Itachi asked lowly, his rage very evident in his voice, despite his indifferent facial expression.

Sasuke-kun gulped, and I couldn't help but smirk at his impending doom.

"W-well, we decided to check on Sakura this morning, coz," he gulped again, "coz...er...K-kakashi wanted to-to...er..."

"_YOU FUCKING LIAR!" _I roared, ready to jump out of the bed and give him the beating of his life. Itachi immediately grabbed me by the waist and settled me between his legs, holding me.

"Kakashi-sensei never scheduled anything with us today because he was probably screwing Anko senseless _and _today is the day we leave for Konoha." I seethed, hissing like a cat.

Naruto, realising that Sasuke had made them get into even worse shit than before, spoke up, "Ne, ne, Sakura-chan. We're just looking out for you. J-just try and th-think about that?"

By the time I was done with these idiots, I was sure I'd have lost about six inches of enamel on my teeth. "That's really rich coming from you, Naruto, seeing as you've never thought anything of substance in your entire existence," I ground out through gritted teeth.

Both Naruto and Sasuke-kun took one step back. They briefly glanced at each other, before looking back at Itachi and I. "Sa-sakura-chan, we just wanted to know if Itachi Taichou had taken you into his room and had se-"

Faster than they could comprehend, I wrapped the duvet around myself and flew from the bed, my right fist glowing green. "Finish that sentence, Uzumaki Naruto," I said, making sure my voice was sickly, sugar-coated sweet, "and I can assure you you'll return to Konoha a blonde blob."

He immediately shut the hell up.

"Get out, both of you," Itachi said, his voice cold and hard.

"B-but aniki, we can't leave Sakura in here."

"Why not?"

"Because she's our teammate."

The room was suddenly filled with a deadly powerful aura, and Itachi's eyes were narrowed so much, they were almost slits. Judging by the gasps of sheer terror that came from both Sasuke-kun and Naruto, he had probably activated his sharingan.

"Let me make this clear, Naruto, Sasuke," he said, so softly that only someone with sharp hearing could hear it. It also underlined the confirmation and promise of extreme pain later on. "I am an extremely selfish person, and I do not share that which is _unquestionably mine._"

Slowly, a sadistic smirk formed on his handsome face as he watched his otouto and his subordinate literally tremble in fear. "I do not share my weapons, I do not share my skill, and most importantly, I do not share _my woman." _His smirk got wider, more sadistic, and much, _much _sexier than was acceptable. "Now leave, before I decided to start inflicting that pain I promised you earlier on here and now."

Said subordinates didn't even think twice. They immediately bolted. Then before I could comment at their cowardice, I was immediately lifted into Itachi's arms and returned to bed, then he proceeded to kiss and penetrate me at the same time. I yelped in his mouth, and he only responded by pounding into me so hard, I could barely produce any sound.

It was turning out to be quite the interesting morning.

Three hours later, we were standing at the gates of Iwagakure no Sato, ready to leave to our beloved village. Anko had totally refused to put her legs together whenever she stood, and when she walked there was a slight wobble in her step.

It seems that Kakashi-sensei wasn't joking about screwing the shit out of her last night. Anko was one of the most resilient kunoichi I'd ever met in my life. Her pain tolerance levels were ridiculous, even by shinobi standards. Yet again, she was in a relationship with the Copy nin, and his pain tolerance levels were up and way beyond ridiculous.

She looked in my direction and we locked gazes, resulting into me smirking at her pain. She smirked back. Earlier in the day, we had bumped into each other, and knew without words that we had both gone through some serious pleasure the previous night. The only difference was, I was a medic, and therefore I could heal any and all evidence of my romps. She, on the other hand couldn't, so she had to deal with the consequences. The only reason nobody ever asked her questions about her personal life was because there was a high probability they'd end up with a snake shoved up their ass.

We were just about to leave before there was a thick cloud of dust, before a piercing scream tore through the peaceful air. My muscles tensed, and instinct told me to pull my ANBU mask over my face.

Immediately, I heard the Godaime Mizukage's voice. "Iwa has been attacked, and the enemy is going for any and every shinobi they can see, particularly Kiri, Suna and Konoha. Prepare to fight."

As I was still processing that information, I saw three senbon and one huge wind shruiken whizz past me. Both my teams were calling for me. I quickly rejoined them, and saw myself shoved between my former sensei and my captain/lover.

"Showtime," Kakashi-sensei muttered, pulling his ANBU mask over his face and simultaneously shoving _Icha Icha _in his weapons pouch. Just before the porcelain eagle covered his face, I saw his half lidded gaze go sharper and the smirk form under his mask.

It seems ANBU brought out his inner sadist. "Let's go, Sakura," he said, and we were off.

**Yeah, that's a cliffy. Deal with it. :-D There's been too many nosebleeds and frigid showers going on. If you can guess who the attacker(s) is/are, next chapter dedications are yours. Ja na.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Congrats to the following: Sakura Hime Uchiha, ItaSakul, Guardian Sakwa, Miyabi-doll and Akatsuki Sakura Uchiha. Ya'll got my question right. This chapter's yours, ladies. :-D**

**Mendoukusei 14.**

A senbon whizzed past me, and impaled an enemy ninja right through the hollow of his throat.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

"Pay attention, Blossom. You can't die yet." Genma whispered into my ear as he zoomed passed me in trademark ANBU speed.

What the hell? I'm the freaking field medic. It's not I fault I have to drag our half dead operatives from the battle to the tent and treat them, before they rush into battle to attempt at dying again.

I swear, Konoha ANBU are masochists, all of them, including myself. This isn't a battlefield, this is a slaughter. All I was seeing were people, jutsu, kunai and shruiken. There was noise, moans of the injured, jutsu being yelled and shinobi trying to organise themselves(and failing miserably if I may add).

I was healing a jounin sensei who was felled protecting her students, when Shishou appeared outta nowhere. "Go fight, Sakura. I got this," she told me as she shoved me out of the way roughly, placing a healing palm on the kunoichi I was healing. She moved her hand to the right, and begun healing another felled ANBU.

She was healing two shinobi _simultaneously._ The only other people who had chakra control that perfect were the Hyuugas.

Even if I was hailed as one of the most brilliant medics in my generation, I still had a long way before I got to Shishou's league. A large doton jutsu brought me back to the present.

"But Shishou, I'm the field medic, I must-"

"Yes, Sakura. You're a _field medic. _Go to the field and do something. You forget people like Hatake Kakashi are in ANBU?" she asked seriously.

Actually, I _did _forget. I was out of there before she could say anything else.

When I got to the battleground, calling it hideous would be an understatement. Bodies were scattered everywhere. Jutsu were still flying around, and since it was technically all the shinobi villages against Oto(though I had my doubts on Iwa and Kumo) there were all kinds of jutsu flying all over the place. There were the drastically injured shinobi, moaning on the ground, as everyone else fought above. If a jutsu landed on you, tough cheese, you'd die.

It wasn't a battle against enemies, it was a battle against survival. You fought for yourself, and perhaps your village. Fuck everyone else.

Suddenly the atmosphere changed. A senbon and a fuuma shuriken whizzed past me, to impale the shinobi and kunoichi who were trying to sneak up on me. Kakashi-sensei planted a raikiri through someone's chest on my immediate right, and just above me, Naruto and his clones were beating the shit outta six Oto shinobi. Hana's dogs tracked _and_ ripped apart four shinobi, while she slit another throat. Itachi's sharingan gleamed, then darkened, and if the immediate rise of my pulse and breathing rates were communicating right to me, he had that sexy smirk of his under his mask that always made me wet without fail.

They had realised I was around and ready to fight. It was show time.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Shikamaru throw two exploding tags at a bunch of enemy shinobi with his shadows and Neji use his eight trigrams empty palm to throw another group of enemy shinobi away from him, before his Shikamaru's teams promptly killed them.

Back on my end, I saw both my former and current teams huddled together in a group, back to back. Without thinking, I jumped to the ground, pushing as much chakra to my fist as possible. My teammates were standing on their toes, ready to leap into the air.

"Shannarooo!"

The second my fist hit the ground, breaking it apart, every single Konoha shinobi jumped in the air, Naruto, his clones and Hana beating as many Oto shinobi as they could to the ground, Gemna and Kakashi sensei pinning them on said ground (or rather, the parts that were jutting out) with senbon, kunai and shuriken, as the others were stuck in the large cracks my strength had caused. Then the three Uchiha suddenly started forming the seals of their trademark technique.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke-kun muttered, and three huge grand fireballs were released from their mouths, straight to the Oto shinobi on the ground.

The only sound drowning out their screams was the flames of the fireballs as they devoured them.

Everyone was stunned, friend and foe. Honestly, I didn't understand the big deal. They were Uchiha, and Uchiha were known in all five countries for their kekkei genkai and their expert manipulation of fire jutsu.

"Kukuku, what do we have here? Three Uchiha and four sharingan users. How very intriguing," said a cold, slimy, silky voice.

My blood froze in my veins, and I felt a cold trepidation go down my spine. Anko turned around, and the fire in her eyes suddenly burned out and the fire that was there previously was replaced by sheer terror.

"Sensei," she croaked, barely able to stand. Kakashi-sensei was by her side in an instant, coal grey eye blazing in rage. He enveloped her in his arms, and was ready to pull his hitai-ate up any moment to protect her.

Shisui's face was hardened in a frown, Sasuke-Kun was snarling and Itachi's eyes had narrowed.

Orochimaru and by default, Kabuto, the biggest retards in the shinobi world and leaders of Otogakure no Sato were in the house.

"Orochimaru," Gemna growled.

Immediately he bit his thumb, drew blood and hit the ground.

Luckily for everyone else, so did another certain Shinobi.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Before Manda, the giant snake could slither, Gamabunta, the giant toad was in his face.

"Jiraiya-sama," Itachi muttered.

"Ero-senin!" Naruto yelled.

"Kakashi, get everyone out of here. Itachi, I need you to deal with Kabuto. I'll fight Orochimaru. Hurry," he yelled hoarsely, his voice showing how tired he was.

Nobody needed to be told twice. Kakashi-sensei was telling everyone to retreat, as Itachi just appeared right in front of Kabuto to make sure he didn't try anything stupid. An Oto shinobi was aiming coupla kunai at one of the Konoha newly promoted chuunin, but his sensei stepped in front of him so that the kunai hit him instead. They lodged themselves haphazardly in his back.

"Senseiiii!" I heard the kid yell, as he looked hopelessly at his teacher fall towards the ground, kunai sticking out of his back. I immediately turned around, and decided to take the risk and go catch him. I did a quick examination of his back, and luckily none of them had struck his spinal cord, though one was only mere centimetres from it.

Yep, he'd live, and that was all that mattered. I looked around for whom to ask for help, before Ino and Hana appeared.

"Heal him," Hana said gruffly. "We'll cover you."

Smiling my utmost thanks at them, I set the shinobi on the ground and begun preparations for healing him.

"It's gonna hurt when I pull out the kunai, so please persevere. I'm sorry," I muttered, as I begun pulling out the kunai from his back. Everytime I attempted to pull one out, his back would tense, and he's gasp and flinch in pain. I felt sorry for him, but it had to be done.

"Please try to relax. It will only be more painful if you tense your muscles. I know it's extremely painful, but this is the best I can do for you now. You'll have to wait to get better medical attention in the village," I soothed, pulling out the last of the kunai and closing the lacerations on his back. I plopped him on my shoulder, and with a glance, Hana, Ino and myself were outta there.

After about a day or so of travelling, we decided to stop and pitch camp. Saying everyone was in a bad mood would be an understatement. People kept far distance from powerful shinobi with signature techniques that could kill within a second, particularly if said shinobi were in ANBU. Jiraiya-sama was around, and his spies offered to keep watch over the campsite throughout the night. He was sitting in Shishou's tent, together with Shikamaru, Neji, Kakashi-sensei And Itachi (ANBU Captains) and I (Head Field Medic).

As I expected, there was no good news from anywhere.

"It's official," Jiraiya-sama said, wincing as Tsunade Shishou tended to his wounds. "Oto and Kumo are in some kind of partnership treaty to obliterate Konoha. Oto wants the sharingan and Kumo wants the byakugan, so that makes enough sense. They are thinking of asking Iwa to join them, since they've always had a grudge against us, though I'm not too sure if they'd join just for the sake of joining. It's no secret Orochimaru isn't the most trustworthy man out there, and that Raikage is definitely the greediest bastard in the shinobi world. Yet again, this is Iwa, I wouldn't put it past them to join for the sake of destroying Konoha."

"Have you found anything to do with the note, Jiraya-sama?" Itachi asked quietly.

The Gama sannin frowned, the lines on his face betraying his true age. "We tried, but it was really hard to track down. What we managed to get, though, is that the note was about three days Old by the time it got to Konoha, meaning Iwa is out. Logically speaking, we are left with either Kumo or Oto," he said, muttering the last part mostly to himself, but because it was so quiet, we managed to hear all the same.

Tsunade Shishou was done healing Jiraiya-sama, and he sighed again as he dressed up. Things just couldn't get any worse.

"The village council and all clan elders are in an uproar. The Hyuuga want their heiress to find a suitable partner quickly, the Uchiha want their clan heir to find a suitable partner quickly, and the village council is telling to shut the hell up."

I was wrong. Things really did get worse. I froze, and Kakashi-sensei and Shishou knowing me so well, glanced at me. Shikamaru and Neji were geniuses, they picked up on it in a rush. Experience and years had taught Jiraiya-sama how to be perceptive, not to mention he was a master at body language, being a spy and all, so he also understood. Itachi had his eyes closed.

"You know your council's gonna go apeshit, don't you, Itachi?" Jiraiya-sama asked slowly.

"Yes, I am aware of that," He replied in his quiet voice, eyes still closed. He was getting angry, I could tell form the tenseness of his muscles.

So could Kakashi-sensei, as he was subtly moving away from him.

"What are you gonna do about it?" again, Jiraiya-sama asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? What d'you mean, nothing?"

"I will do nothing." He said, his voice dangerously low.

Jiraiya-sama opened his mouth to say something, but when he was levelled with that sharingan glare, he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

"_My _partner is _my_ choice," he said, voice calm and smooth, yet harder than steel and colder than ice. He then stood up and walked out of the tent, his gait quiet and fast.

I looked around nervously, before clearing my throat. "E-excuse me, let me go see if I can talk to him."

I stood up and bowed awkwardly, mostly to make up for Itachi's rare display of rude behaviour, before almost stumbling out of the tent to head for his.

A lot of drama awaited us in Konoha, and I had a feeling I was not gonna like it one bit.

***Sigh* Again, not exactly my strongest chapter, and I apologise. I also apologise for being late. I'm alive and kicking. Thanks so much for all those that were concerned enough to send me DMs asking if I'm okay.**

**I suck at describing battle scenes, hence why I'm a bit hesitant about the quality of this particular chapter. Exams are really close by too, in about two weeks or so, and to be honest, I'm supposed to be reading instead of posting fanfiction. I'm warning you though, I'm gonna be off here for a while, three weeks to a month, because of said exams, though I may be able to squeeze in a chapter when I get fed up of my books, so don't get too worried when you don't see any updates in a while.**

**Ja na.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Yeah, I know I said I wouldn't update in a while coz of exams, but it's all Itachiweasel-hime's fault, She updated her story, prompting me to update mine. I also put blame on Black-Blue Moonlight Neko for reviewing on said story and just cracking me up. There'll be no more updates till after exams though. I'm serious. (-:**

**And to those who kept on asking if I'm fine, thanks. (-: I appreciate the concern.**

**Mendoukusei 15.**

I was terrified.

I was literally scared out of my wits. I'd never been this scared in my _life._ Even if you'd tell me that the Akatsuki had come back to life, that wouldn't strike as much fear as what was just about to happen to me right now.

Shisui and Sasuke-kun had appeared in my apartment, bright and early on the morning after we arrived from the disaster that were the chuunin exams and promptly informed me that the Uchiha head and his clan wanted to see me. That had been exactly five days ago, and that had not scared me. After all, I had interacted with the head family of said clan previously in the past.

What scared me was the fact that Shisui was dead serious, and Sasuke-kun kept on sending me sympathetic looks. Shisui _never _did serious, and Sasuke-kun _never _did sympathetic, actions, words or otherwise.

We slowly waked, my fear seizing me more powerfully as every step we made got us closer to the Uchiha district and ultimately, the Uchiha main house. I really hoped that my epitaph would have a nice message on it, and I also hoped to have my name on the memorial stone, though I technically won't have died in action.

A cold sweat broke on my forehead as we approached the district, and the _kind and sympathetic _looks any and every Uchiha sent my way inside the district only made my fear worse. What was today, feel-sorry-for-Sakura-as-she-walks-to-her-death day?

We finally got to the house, and I saw the clan head and the clan heir standing at the door, apathetic faces in place. I gasped in awe.

They looked _exactly _alike. They looked so much alike, it was almost scary. Smooth pale skin, high cheekbones and that natural haughty look to signify high clan nobility. Ebony black hair and blank onyx eyes betraying nothing. Toned and excellently muscled bodies, more lean than bulk, bodies built for agility and speed, rather than raw strength. Even those strong character lines near their eyes were the same, though Fugaku-sama's were deeper, probably due to age. The only difference were slight lines at the outer edges of Fugaku-sama's eyes that betrayed his age, but even then, it would be hard to believe this man was in his mid-fifties. He _still _carried out A-class missions with the ruthlessness of any other shinobi, though he'd long quit the Black Orps. Not to mention both of them were devastatingly handsome, particularly the younger.

Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Itachi, father and son. Both were dressed casually in typical Uchiha male manner: black slacks, black sandals and black shirts with the Uchiha crest at the back.

"Good morning, Sakura," Fugaku-sama greeted, his smooth baritone, very much like Sasuke-kun's carrying itself to my ears. I gulped slowly, bowing and giving my greetings.

"Good morning, Fugaku-sama," I said humbly. He turned around and begun walking into his house.

This time, I swallowed as my body flooded with trepidation. He did not correct me and ask me to call him Fugaku-otoo-san. Things must have gotten really messy.

Itachi on the other side greeted me with a stiff nod, a sure sign that he was not in a good mood at all.

I followed them inside the house, and Fugaku-sama invited me to have seat. His features relaxed, and I realised that he was just putting up an act all that time. He sighed, long and deep.

I faintly mused how hanging around an Uchiha most of my life had made me able to decipher what they mean by slight expressions like sighs. I'd have smiled if impending doom wasn't hanging over my head like a black cloud.

"I'm sure you know the reason I have called you here, do you not?" he asked, his tone polite.

Oh yes, things were bad. Earlier on in the morning there was a clan meeting, and I'm sure things had gotten pretty messy concerning Itachi's choice in prospective bride, i.e. me. Fugaku-sama, being a typical Uchiha male was schooled in the art of being emotionless, and he was holding in his rage.

Yep, definitely spending too much time hanging around Uchiha.

I gulped again. "Yes."

The left side of his mouth twitched into a half smirk. "As you can see, neither Mikoto or I have a problem, but the council does. Despite your prowess as a kunoichi-after all, you are the Godaime Hokage's apprentice and a former student of Sharingan no Kakashi-they still are not convinced that with your chakra control and Itachi's sharingan, your children are going to be formidable. Sasuke, however, discussed the issue with his aniki and both of them have come up with something quite...dare I say, devilish." He had a full blown smirk on, and it was dripping with evil malice.

I could already see my coffin. I had even picked my gravesite in my mind.

"Mikito and I told them that Itachi would arrive with you to the meeting in another few days in the afternoon. Do you have some time?"

I quickly went through my programme for the next few days. My shift begun at six in the evening every day. "Well, I'm free until six every evening," I said quietly.

"Very well then. It is settled. I shall have Shisui come collect you from your residence at two in the afternoon. You may leave now." He said, before turning off and heading upstairs.

I was left standing there, absorbing that piece of information, before I was engulfed in another bout of terror. I did not want to encounter anyone at that particular moment, so I quickly did my hand signs and teleported myself out of there.

I've never thought that days would be so endlessly long.

This is why I'm standing in front of the main Uchiha house door, waiting for Itachi to come out and lead me to my impending doom. It's going to be a very long day indeed, and this long day will probably be stretched to weeks, months even.

Itachi came out, and took my hand into his. I was trembling slightly, yet he squeezed my hand reassuringly. We walked for what seemed like forever, before we got to the entrance of an amphitheatre.

"Do not say anything to them. I will speak on your behalf. Do not worry, I will handle this." He told me gently, despite the tinge of darkness in his voice. At this point in time, I really didn't know who to feel sorry for more, myself or those clan members. Itachi was pissed, and everyone in the village, shinobi or civilian, knew not to mess with Uchiha Itachi when he was in a bad mood.

He took my hand into his again, and led me into the amphitheatre that was the meeting place of the Uchiha clan council.

A cold sweat broke on my forehead as I felt the glares form all around me, all of them condescending. How the _hell_ could someone make you feel so small with a freaking _glare? _

"You have arrived, I see." One of the old geezers said. Itachi said nothing, merely looking at him with his apathetic face. Said old man looked at me, and Itachi's reassuring grip on my hand is the only thing that kept me from bolting. He was lending me his strength, he was being my pillar of support, and I wholeheartedly appreciated it. Kami-sama knew I needed it most now.

He turned back to Itachi. "Why her?" he asked, clearly angry.

Well, clearly not all males in this clan could be emotionless.

"Because she is the one I want," he replied smoothly, traces of sarcasm and mockery in his voice.

"Why not choose a lady in the clan, Itachi?" Another asked.

"Is your senility affecting your thought process? I do not like to repeat myself." He said, still in the same, calm voice.

"Gaki, you dare speak so rudely? Do you know who I am?" the second shouted loudly.

Itachi turned, a slight smirk curving on the left corner of those full, sinful lips of his. "What does who you are have to do with the reason I and my partner are here?" he asked, the sarcasm and mockery much thicker.

I felt the stirrings of desire pool in my stomach. I still couldn't understand how the hell his temper could turn me on so badly, and I'm supposed to be smart.

The second man growled, but kept quiet. An old lady, who had an uncanny resemblance to his mother spoke up. Itachi's smirk immediately disappeared, replaced with indifference again.

"But Itachi dear, the women of the clan have been groomed for you and all the other young Uchiha males. Surely, there has to be one who has taken your fancy." She said.

Itachi sighed quietly. "I understand, baa-chan, but I am afraid none of them have, unfortunately. I much prefer my choice." His voice was soft and tender. So this was his maternal grandmother. Itachi and Sasuke-kun had few female relatives, and they cherished them. His baa-chan simply sighed and leaned back in her chair.

A barrage of more questions was thrown at him, and in typical Itachi fashion, he answered them, one after the other, calmly and indifferently, and it seemed his calmness was slowly infuriating his clan council.

Finally, in sheer rage, another old woman screamed, "Can you give us any reasons to support your judgement of marrying this pink haired brat?"

Itachi went stiff, but remained silent. He was wearing a t-shirt, and when I saw the muscles on his forearms harden, I realised he was slowly getting angrier.

"This 'pink haired brat' as you so call her," he began, his voice dangerously low, "is one of the most powerful kunoichi of her generation. She is an accomplished medic-nin, a former student of the Copy-nin, 'Sharingan no Kakashi' otherwise known as Hatake Kakashi and the mentee of the _Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato." _he ended, his eyes flaring with rage, his voice still calm and collected.

There were gasps all over the amphitheatre, but Itachi ploughed on. "Her genin and chuunin teammates were my otouto, Uchiha Sasuke and the kyuubi Jinchuuriki, the son of the Yondaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto. She is currently an ANBU operative consisting of Shiranui Genma, Uchiha Shisui and myself, currently the most powerful shinobi team in Fire Country." He finished, his voice hardened, but still smooth, which could be heard loud and clear, in the deathly silent arena.

"If my memory serves me correctly, not one kunoichi in this clan of that age group has been approved for ANBU, the most powerful being a jounin."

It was still silent, before another man spoke up. Surely these old men and women were suicidal.

"You will _not _marry her!" he boomed.

Itachi's killing intent begun to leak out.

"Yes, I _will_," he hissed.

"Do you know who I am, gaki? Do you know who _we are_? Do you not understand how much po-"

Itachi closed his eyes, and the whole place was flooded with his killing intent. Some of the old geezers were coughing and gasping, and I felt my own throat start to dry up. When he opened his eyes, he had activated his kekkei genkai, tomoe spinning and the crimson in his eyes bright.

He turned to the man who was speaking before who, along with a good chunk of the other clan elders, were terrified, trembling and cringing in sheer fear.

"Do you know who_ I _am?" He asked softly. "Do you know how much power _I _yield? I am the _clan heir _and _ANBU captain._ In the next few years, _I_ will be the one running this clan, not either of you. To run _my _clan, I will need a wife. A wife who is a capable kunoichi and a capable woman. She is supposed to be my _partner, _not my _subordinate_. She will be there to support and help me. _You _are the council. You are my _advisors. _ I have the choice to follow your advice or_ not._ I can decide to massacre everyone in this village and there is absolutely _nothing_ you can do about it. I can decide to kill you all, and nobody will indict me. Know your place, _cretin."_

He looked down on me, and I saw his gaze soften when he saw the look of terror on my face. Sexy as he was, he was also scary as hell when pissed. He looked up at the rest of the old geezers and deactivated his sharingan.

"I have chosen Sakura as my bride. I do not _need _your approval. I am going to marry her, and whether you accept it or not, _she _is going to be the next clan matriarch. We shall now take our leave. We shall inform you of any future arrangement concerning our matrimony. Sakura has to go back to the hospital, and I have work to do at headquarters."

Putting his arm around my waist, he led me towards the door, and we got out, to find Fugaku-sama, Mikoto-sama, Tsunade-shishou and Kakashi-sensei. All four of them were smirking.

"Maa, quite the hell you raised in there, Itachi. Didn't know you had it in you," Kakashi-sensei drawled, closing his book with a snap.

"Better take care of my apprentice, you brat, or else..." Shishou said, cracking her fingers.

"Good job, my son." Fugaku-sama said, clapping Itachi on the shoulder in a very un-Uchiha like manner.

"Let's go home for some tea," Mikoto-sama said politely.

"Saaaaaaaaaaakura-chaaaaaaaaan, what the hell are you doing here?" I heard a familiar knuckle-headed blonde ninja ask.

Sasuke-kun just eyed everyone suspiciously, before visibly blanching at his brother's sexy smirk.

"Sakura and I are engaged," he said silkily, watching in glee as Sasuke-kun's eyes widened into saucers.

I sighed.

"Na-na-NANDATOOOOO?" Naruto yelled in disbelief, as Sasuke-kun promptly fainted.

I sighed again. It was gonna be a long week. A very long week.


	16. Chapter 16

**Mendoukusei 16.**

"I cannot _believe _you," Sasuke-kun grumbled irritably, crossing his arms over his chest, and brooding.

Both he and Naruto were sitting in front of me, having come to vocalise their disapproval of my engagement to Itachi. They firmly (and wrongly) believed that Itachi forced me into this engagement. Stupid, overprotective teammates.

It was a month and a half after all the drama at a certain clan meeting, and word was slowly but surely leaking out that Itachi and I were engaged. At first, most of the women (and men, Sasuke-kun, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei informed me) were sceptical. There was just no way in _hell _Itachi and I were engaged. The Uchiha would go ape-shit and Tsunade Shishou would not approve.

Unfortunately, if there was one thing Uchiha men were good at, (other than killing, destruction of any grounds, training or otherwise and general violence) it was shock value.

Uchiha Itachi showed no emotion, that was a well established fact all over Konoha. When it came to me, though, it was a whole different story altogether.

Mikito kaa-chan had warned me earlier: Itachi was _extremely_ possessive, a trait he apparently inherited from his father. He would see to it that everyone would know I was _his _and no one else's. I laughed, saying it was rather sweet of him to be so protective of me. Mikito kaa-chan rephrased.

"No, Sakura, you misunderstand. When I say possessive, I mean just that, _possessive. _Of course he's going to be protective of you, but he's well aware that you are strong enough to protect yourself. In a few weeks, I can assure you that most men will take cover when they see you, not because they don't like you, but because they will have to face him later."

She was right. Soon enough, most men, with a very small eception lamost always bolted when they were in my immediate vicinity. Damn mothers' wisdom.

As usual, Itachi spoke with his actions rather than words. He started showing varying displays of affection, from sweet and innocent (like a kiss on the forehead after a long day at the hospital, or after a long travel during missions) to blatantly sexual (like giving me hickeys in the hospital during shifts) and causing severe embarrassment on my part.

One such incident happened a few days ago. I was working the afternoon shift (my personal worst, since most suicidal shinobi almost always arrived at the hospital on the verge of death at this time) and I just _knew _it was going to be a long day.

Itachi, being the gentleman he truly is, requested to escort me to the hospital. At the lobby, I was standing on my toes to kiss him on the cheek and wish him a good day, when he bent down and sealed his lips on my neck faster than I could pull away, then he began to suck, _in front of everyone in the lobby._

Needless to say, everything stopped, and the hospital was just almost being plunged into chaos. All the men were too shocked to do anything, and all the women had promptly fled to the washrooms, no doubt to bawl their eyes out because the rumours about their Ita-kun were turning out to be more and more true.

I, on the other hand was flustered and aroused as hell. The things Itachi could do with his _mouth_, it was hard to keep on standing and I found myself leaning into his body since my knees were too weak to go on supporting me. Of course, Itachi wasn't complaining at all, the horny bastard, and had no qualms about wrapping his arms around me and pulling me closer to himself.

Somewhere in my pleasure-addled brain, the thought that this was the hospital and as a high-calibre medic I was acting extremely inappropriately and Shishou would not be amused in the least if she found me in this situation.

Acting on that, though was something else altogether, since Itachi had practically moulded me onto his body, and his muscular chest and his rock hard abs were doing funny things to my brain.

Suddenly, I felt a very familiar chakra pattern, and judging by how sinister it felt, the owner was not amused t what was going on. I felt Itachi smirk on my neck, and pulling back quickly to make sure the mark on my neck was visible to all, he promptly disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving me to face the brunt of his boss alone.

"Really,Sakura. You need to have better control of your hormones. I know that Uchiha brat needs heirs, but I really don't think the hospital is the best place to make them. Don't you think it's a bit too early as well? You're not married yet, and those old bats at his council are going to get coronaries that I'll have to deal with if they find out you're already pregnant _before your marriage." _ Shishou yelled as she walked into the room, eventually stopping in front of me and putting her hands on her hips. I swear everyone in the hospital and the immediate environment just heard what she said. I was so embarrassed, I was sure some of my skin cells would have burnt off.

It was still an inside joke among hospital elite to this day, and no doubt the most humiliating moment in my life.

"Why, Sakura-chan? Why are you gonna marry him? He's just going to make you into his baby machine, and then take over the world or something. Oh my Kami, Sakura-chan, do you see? What have you done? You've got to stop him!" Naruto yelled, bringing me back to the present. I looked up at him and he was pacing up and down my office, throwing his hands around and looking very agitated.

"How could you agree to marry him? Now my parents are gonna start pestering me to marry as well, to get more grandchildren," Sasuke-kun went on grumbling.

I could feel a headache coming on, as I massaged my temples. Why, of all people, was I saddled with the biggest morons for teammates? Technically, they weren't even my teammates any more.

"Look, you guys, I thought we already talked about this. I love Itachi, and he loves me. We both want to get married and have kids. Nothing's going to change. I'll still be the same."

Sasuke-kun's frown got deeper when he looked at me. "What?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest in indignation. "Just because I'm becoming your sister-in-law doesn't mean I'm changing in any way. Don't you dare sulk at me like that."

"But Sakura-chan, don't you think he just wants to have se-"

A well delivered punch (with a little chakra) to Naruto's big mouth shut him up permanently, and I saw his idiot partner slightly blanch from the corner of my eye. Just as I was about to kick them out, the door to my office opened, and in walked my former sensei, tardy as usual reading his porno book. When he saw Naruto blacked out at the corner of the room, Sasuke-kun's face quite paler than it normally is, and the chakra still glowing on my fist, he crinkled his eye, and sighed in nostalgia, as if remembering happy memories. My eyes narrowed

"You're late, Kakashi-sensei," I ground out through gritted teeth.

He turned to me, bright smile still in place. A rare phenomenal indeed. "You guys never change. This scene brings back some seriously nostalgic memories, like that time we went to Kumo for an S-Class, and then Naruto ate all the food and Sasuke used a katon jutsu that was too powerful and burnt instead of dried the wood I'd collected from that rainy forest. Then you beat them both up within an inch of their lives, and Naruto in particular bled so much that he needed a transfusion, remember? You kids grow up so fast," he mused, as he shut his book and placed it in his pocket.

I felt the vein bulge in my forehead, though those really were some awesome memories, good times I'd shared with my boys during our short time as a jounin team before they all joined ANBU.

Happy times.

"Get out," I snapped at both of them, my temper returning pointing to my door. "If you don't, my fists will get you out, through the window. I have an afternoon shift and I don't wanna deal with you guys. Leave, NOW."

Just as they were walking out, with Kakashi-sensei carrying Naruto on his shoulder, before my name was said aloud on the intercom, sounding panicked due to an emergency. I sprinted, downstairs, and what I saw almost made my eyes bulge out of my sockets.

In front of me was a jounin team, one I knew all too well, beaten and bruised so badly, it was a wonder how they made it back in such a condition. Their skin was a unified purple, and they had cuts on their shoulders. All four of them had terrible external injuries, and a quick diagnosis using my chakra on each of them confirmed my worst fears: chakra exhaustion, poison and massive internal haemorrhage.

"You," I pointed to a medic, "Get Shishou, Shizune nee-chan and Emi. The rest of you, prepare emergency rooms four and five for immediate heavy operations. Prepare the strongest drips and three bags of blood for each of these shinobi. Move it! Move it! Move it!" I screamed, feeling hysteria creeping in but forcefully repressing it by going into medic mode.

I turned around to sprint to change into my operations gear, before bumping right into Kakashi-sensei. He took one look at me and immediately turned to Sasuke-kun.

"Sasuke, get to jounin HQ right this instant and ask all the ANBU captains to get here. Request Jiraiya-sama to come as well and tell Shisui to come with the report from the Konoha Police." He barked

"What the hell is going on?" Tsunade Shishou burst into the hospital and froze when she saw one of her most powerful kunoichi on the verge of death. The colour drained from her face, and for a split second I could see the terror written on her face. She recovered quickly, however, and entered into one of the emergency rooms.

"Emi, come with me." She said harshly, with Emi following her behind. Shizune nee and I simply entered the other emergency room and begun our healing procedures.

Just as we were beginning, Itachi and Shikamaru burst into the room, but stayed at the door when they saw our hands glow green with healing chakra. Both geniuses had their eyes narrowed, and from the looks on their faces, I knew they might have an idea who did this.

I only knew one person who knew such dangerous poisons, and also had enough knowledge to inflict them so accurately. Former Akatsuki and S-Class missing nin from Sunagakure no Sato, Akasuna no Sasori. He, however, was dead, like the rest of his Akatsuki members. I wracked my brain, running through enemies of Konoha who would be so knowledgeable in medicine, particularly poisons.

A small gasp escaped my mouth as I realised who it was, before all the other three shinobi in the room immediately looked in my direction. My eyes narrowed, and I was gritting my teeth. Oh, this means _war._

I looked back at my patient. "Don't worry, Ino," I whispered, as I healed her cuts, pulling the basin on the side next to me so that I could start retracting the poison from her system. "You, Hinata, Chouji and Kiba have the best medics attending to you. You _will _live."

This was _definite war._


	17. Chapter 17

**Sooooooo sorry this has taken so long. I'm on holiday, and my brain has totally refused to work. I'm gonna try and make this as interesting as possible, despite my writers block. Again I apologise.**

**The responses to this story are just absolutely amazing. I really appreciate it. Thank you all so very much and please do not hesitate to gimme constructive criticism. As much as I'm apparently a good writer, there's always room for improvement, right? (-:**

**Enjoy. :-D**

**Mendoukusei 17.**

I was having a very bad feeling about this.

Six hours after one of the most draining and hardest operations I have ever had to do and then a four hour rest found us in Shishou's office. She had her hands under her chin and the atmosphere in said office was tense. Ino, Hinata, Chouji and Kiba were fine. Though they were under strict bed rest for the next two weeks, they would be good as new again.

"Orochimaru and Sound have declared war." Itachi begun emotionlessly. Everybody stiffened, particularly Sasuke-kun and Shikamaru. I decided to ask them about it later. "The Konoha Police Force has investigated the threat note recently sent to Hokage-sama among other evidence that proves the same. We also have the unexpected attack to account for at the chuunin exams, and the recent poisoning of one our strongest jounin teams." He concluded.

"We suspect Orochiamru wants an Uchiha to get access to the sharingan. There is also a strong suspicion that he is working together with Kumo who want the Byakugan, hence the reason no Kumo forces suffered casualties during the raid," Shisui, leader of the Konoha Police Force continued. "To be on the safe side, we need to send a covert recon mission to Kumo for a few weeks. I suggest a team with expert infiltration levels and covert skills." He said, his voice sombre and serious, something we don't get to hear very often.

"The poisoning of Hyuuga-san's team was probably a way of them communicating to us that they have declared war on us. This serves as a particularly big problem because that particular jounin team was going for a highly secretive S-Class mission, and only the hokage and elite shinobi of the village knew of it." Itachi continued.

There were a few gasps from some of the jounin gathered.

"The police force, Fugaku otoo-san and I highly suspect that there are Otogakure spies among us, moles most probably. We need to investigate all the shinobi ranks top to bottom." Shisui finished, handing in the report from the police to Tsunade Shihsou, who took it and placed it on her desk.

Jiraya-sama was quiet.

Tsunade Shishou sighed. "I'm afraid I shall have to send Neji's team then. The rest of you need to stay here to protect the village. If we are at war, we better have all our strongest forces at all times. We shall have a full investigation of all, and I mean _every single active shinobi _in the village, from academy students to ANBU Captains in the next two days. Ibiki and his interrogators shall be investigated by Captains Uchiha and Hatake."

She put her hands on the desk in front of her and looked right at Neji. "You leave at midnight tomorrow after your interrogation. You are to stay there for two weeks. Do not forget to stress to your team that this is a covert recon mission." At this point she looked at Jiraya –sama.

"I'll gather a team of my spies and we'll go in before you. We'll pose as merchant, and you'll pose as our hired guards. You'll have to come in henge-d, though, since all of you are in the bingo books. We don't want our cover blown, particularly in enemy territory." He said, sounding very serious.

Shishou continued, "The moment your time is up, you leave immediately. Nobody should be able to recognise you. The rest of you keep your eyes open at all times. It's been a long day. Dismissed."

We slowly filed our way outside. I was still exhausted, but I had a night shift at the hospital and I was not looking forward to it.

"Sakura," I heard the all too familiar lilting tenor. I looked up to find Itachi's apathetic face. "You are tired. Go back to the district and rest. I shall inform everyone not to disturb you."

I sighed. "Thank you, Itachi, but I have a shift tonight at the hospital and I can't afford not to go. I promise if I find anyone who can stand in for me I'll get home and sleep. I am really tired, actually." I yawned to emphasise that point.

A slight frown appeared on his handsome face. "Are you sure you are going to be alright? I could ask Shisui to tell one of the police force officers to-"

"Itachi, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." I reassured him, smiling tiredly. I quickly got out of his strong grip and strode towards the hospital. It was going to be a very long shift that I was not looking forward to, though I had no choice in the matter.

As I walked, I could feel his powerful gaze boring my back as I walked toward the hospital. He was obviously not amused at all. I sighed again. Why is all this drama happening now?

Hyuuga Hashimoto was standing in my office, patiently waiting for me. For a moment, I was too stunned to do anything.

"Haruno-san," she said, bowing.

All the hairs at the back of my neck stood up as my ninja instincts kicked in full force. Without even thinking, I started pumping chakra into my fists.

"Hyuuga-san," I said, my voice slightly tight.

"I need to ask you for a rather personal request." She went on. She did not notice that I was pumping chakra into my fists, a very un-Hyuuga like characteristic. I narrowed my eyes.

"Speak." I knew I was being rude, but something was amiss.

"Hiyashi-sama requests access to Hinata-sama and Neji-sama's medical records."

If I was a lesser kunoichi, I would have gasped, but having one of the most powerful shinobi of their respective generations as teammates and a teacher, training by the Godaime Hokage herself, and being engaged as well as on the team of one of the most powerful ANBU Captains in Fire Country's history taught me the art of keeping my emotions to myself at the right time well.

"Why?"

It was against hospital policy to hand out another shinobi's medical records to anyone other than the hokage or the individual himself or herself, more so that of a high ranking jounin and an ANBU Captain respectively. Said high ranking jounin and ANBU Captain were two extremely powerful ninja of the village and part of the inner circle of one of the most powerful shinobi clans in Fire Country. Tsunade Shishou reinforces, sometimes with fists, for Clan elders, ANBU Captains and team leaders to stress this to their fellow subordinates.

Hyuuga Hashimoto, being an ANBU operative and a member of the Hyuuga clan knew this all too well.

"I do not know why he requests them."

If Hiyashi-sama would have wanted Hinata and Neji's medical records, wouldn't he have gone to Shishou himself to ask her permission before coming to me?

"You aren't Hyuuga-san, are you?" I asked suspiciously.

The imposter begun doing hand seals, but before they could let out their jutsu I'd already punched them in the shoulder bone and shattered it. His scream of agony as he transformed back to his natural form and flew through the wall rent the hospital building.

I jumped through the hole he made after I punched him, but he was up and disappearing, because our commotion and his loud scream had brought unwanted attention. In a flash, he was outta there, but before he zoomed off, I caught a quick glimpse of his hitai-ate, and the two clouds were carved on the metal. He also had grey eyes and jet black hair.

"Kumo." I said under my breath.

He was definitely an elite, Konoha's version of ANBU, for even a highly experienced jounin cannot have such speed.

My vision got blurry, and I knew I was exhausted. As I waited to hit the hard ground, I felt myself collapse into a pair of powerful arms, then I blacked out.

I fluttered my eyelids, trying to clear up my blurry vision, before opening them up completely.

"Yo. You alright?"I heard a deep male voice asked. Concerned brown eyes stared down at me as a senbon moved from one end of a full mouth to another.

"Gemna?" I asked, trying to move. My head was pounding so hard in my head and I was feeling extremely week.

"Your fiancé demanded your chakra be drained so you don't go back to the hospital."

I frowned. I was intending to go the hospital and turn it upside down until I found the medic that had the nerve to drain my chakra. I huffed in annoyance.

"Don't even think about it. He had Tsunade-sama do it so that you don't go threatening and then later on applying your fists of doom on anyone."

Dammit.

Genma moved his senbon in his mouth again. "Lemme get everyone else here so that you can explain exactly what happened back there." He stood up and left the room.

Looking around, I realised I was in the room that Itachi and I shared in the Uchiha Main House. He was probably the one who brought me in. I sighed and lay on my back.

Suddenly everyone of importance was filtering into the room. Uchiha and Hyuuga clan heads, ANBU Captains, friends and family before my beloved team came in last.

"Saaaaaaaaakura-chaaaaaaaaan, who is the stupid bastard that did this to you? I'll go into senin mode and unleash my rasen shiruken on them. No one messes with my Sakura-chan and gets away with it. Oi, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, let's go give someone a beating of their life. Don't forget to have your chidori and raikiri ready. Sakura-chan was hurt, we must avenge her." Naruto came in, bellowing loudly for all of Konoha to hear. He then stopped talking, blinked twice then his blue eyes were trained right on Itachi.

"Yo, Itachi Taichou, you should come too. Your sharingan and genjitsu should be useful. Yeah. Then you can get him to tell us why he attacked Sakura-chan. Hey, I think you should use your tsu...tsik...tso..."

Naruto crossed his arms around his chest, before closing his eyes and frowning his brow in serious concentration.

"Tsu...tsi...anosa, Sasuke, what's that technique Itachi Taichou uses on guys with his sharingan called again?" he asked seriously.

"Tsukiyomi," Kakashi-sensei said, flipping a page of his porno.

Naruto's eyes brightened. "Yeah. That's it. You can tsiku...what Kakashi-sensei said. So, let's go." He ended up yelling.

"Do you know where you're going or who you're going to attack, Naruto?" Kakashi-sensei asked, as he snapped his book shut.

Naruto screeched to a halt at the door, before slowly turning around.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, who attacked you?"

"Oh my goodness," Shishou grumbled under her breath as I slapped my palm on my forehead and Sasuke-kun rolled his eyes.

Shishou turned back to me. "Sakura, can you tell us what happened back there?"

I explained everything, from the moment I got into the office and found the imposter there, to the moment I blacked out. I realised the tension in the room had risen significantly by the time I was finished.

Fugaku-sama and Hiyashi-sama in particular were the most enraged.

"Everyone, it's been a long day. Let's go rest. We'll begin investigations tomorrow. Shisui," Shishou turned to him, "have every major entrance of every major building with at least two members of the Police force. Itachi and Kakashi, add at least one ANBU member where every Police force member is. Neji, begin preparations with your teams on your departure. I'll have Ibiki interrogate you first since you have to leave."

Slowly, everyone filed out of the room, leaving me and Itachi alone. Just as I thought, he was not amused. I sighed.

"Sakura," he said his lilting tenor hard. I looked up. "Why did you not come home?" his voice was calm, cold as steel.

I swallowed, simultaneously scared and turned on.

"I had to. I couldn't afford not to go. It was my shift, and as a high ranking medic I had to go and see how the hospital is run. If I didn't, Shishou would have my neck, not to mention the staff would be slack, and then work would deteri-"

He put his long index finger on my lips, and with the contact I felt the stirrings of desire pooling in my stomach.

How could someone be so sexy by just freaking _talking? _

"You are human, Sakura. You get tired. Couldn't you inform Hokage-sama to get someone else?" he asked me softly, pulling a strand of hair behind my ear, making me blush fifteen shades of red. It was definitely clashing with my hair.

"I-I-I'm sorry," I stuttered, blushing like an academy schoolgirl. "Next time I promise not to exert too mu-"

He interrupted me again, kissing me gently on the lips, before moving that sinful mouth of his to my neck. He suckled on it, gently at first, then roughly nipping and biting, leaving a mark.

Not being able to control myself, I let out a slight sigh, and felt him smirk on my neck, when we both realised he had total control over my body and hormones.

That was a bad thing.

Damn him and his sex appeal.

He suddenly got up from the bed and slowly took off his shirt. The way he slowly revealed his rock hard abs, his broad chest, the smooth pale skin...

_Just look at how delectably sexy he is. _My inner came out of nowhere, voice dripping with lust._ In fact I think he's gotten even sexier. Can you imagine him naked in the shower? You can just see the water droplets slowly going down that god-like body of his in little rivulets, flowing down his broad, smooth chest, onto those delectable abs, right onto the V that's on his hips, and then from there it flows to his-_

I immediately slammed the door of those thoughts shut, including the picture Inner Sakura had very, _very _vividly painted in my mind.

**Get lost. I am NOT in the mood,** I growled menacingly, before feeling the wetness between my legs and squeezing them together.

Before I fully came back to the present, I felt his ever strong, powerful arms around me, pulling me close to him before settling into bed.

"Goodnight, Ita-kun," I said in a little voice, trying to rid myself of my dirty thoughts.

He sighed slowly, before replying. "Goodnight, my queen."

I fell into a deep sleep, satisfied.


	18. Chapter 18

**Itachi...wet...naked...in a shower...**

**Okay, you can clean up after your nosebleeds now and go on with the story. (-:**

**Mendoukusei 18.**

I swear Kami-sama was on a revenge mission against me.

What had I done in my former life? I thought I had apologised previously for any wrongdoings I had done in the past.

My face had been beet red all morning. I was sitting next to my two teammates that were smirking like the Cheshire cat and my captain/fiancé who was smirking worse than the Cheshire cat and devil's advocate combined.

"Are you ready for your interrogation?" Ibiki asked us after walking out of the interrogation room. Shikamaru lazily walked out after his interrogation, muttering something along the lines of this ANBU business being so troublesome and hoping he's not involved in anything to do with these recent shenanigans. His team walked out behind him, facial expressions ranging from terrified to emotionally drained.

Well, Ibiki's effect on other mortals had not diminished in the least.

"Yes," I squeaked, jumping up and briskly walking past Ibiki into the room. "I'll go first."

This, so far was turning out to be the most embarrassing moment of my life. In fact, I was sure it was so embarrassing, even my ancestors were cringing in their graves. The behaviours of my soon-to-be parents-in-law made them my prime suspects. I've known Uchiha long enough to realise that they never smirk for no reason, particularly the men.

"All of you are supposed to be interrogated at the same time, as a team," Ibiki responded, eyebrow raised at my behaviour. Behind me I heard shuffling and movement of chairs, and I realised that my team was walking into the room behind me.

My life sucks.

It all started when I woke up. It had been two days since the interrogations begun, and Neji's and Jiraiya-sama's teams still had a day's travel to Kumo. I woke up feeling uncharacteristically disoriented. Itachi was in the shower, and for some reason, I could not seem to comprehend that fact.

Nevertheless, I woke up and made my way to the bathroom to splash some cold water in my face to get my day started. After splashing water on my face three times, I was still feeling confused, so I decided to go take a shower. As I was walking toward the shower, I heard water, but it did not hit me that someone, or rather, Itachi might be in there.

I opened the door of the shower and saw Itachi.

A _naked_ Itachi.

A _wet, naked _Itachi.

A wet, naked Itachi who cared less that I'd walked in on him taking a shower.

My throat went dry. I swallowed hard and forced myself to look into his eyes, away from the water droplets moving down his body and found myself staring into his blood red sharingan. I blinked once, and when I looked at him again, he deactivated his bloodline limit and I was staring into deep pools of onyx.

I also realised that I wasn't feeling disoriented anymore. In fact, I was quite alert, despite the fact that I was never a morning person. I blinked once again, and when I saw that entirely masculine smirk on his handsome face, trepidation flooded my body, for it was then that I realised what exactly was going on.

He had me in a genjutsu. He had planned this out from last night; I'd get disoriented in the morning because of said genjutsu, then I would walk in on him while he was showering. His sex appeal would render me speechless, causing all brain functions to cease, giving him a perfect excuse to take me to the shower with him and shag me senseless.

Damn...he really _is _a genius.

_I find it quite amusing that even after seeing him in his state of undress you can still be analytical in your deductions, _my inner cackled, rubbing her hands together in perverted glee.

**Shut up, you incorrigible pervert. **I growled back.

And good Kami-sama he was _**sexy.**_

**Hell no...** I screamed mentally.

_Hell yeah, _my inner replied, very shamelessly running her eyes over Itachi's wet, naked body.

_Our dreams have come true. Look at him. He's _wet and naked_ in the shower, just as I described him. Just look at how devastatingly sexy he is. Look at his muscles, good Kami-sama, his _abs_. Look at how the water is flowing down his body..._

As Inner Sakura was going on and on, all I could do was swallow heavily. This was simply too much for me to take.

"Erm...e-excuse me, Itachi. I-I-I'm so sorry. D-Didn't kinda...erm...kn-know you're h-here. Err, I'll use S-Sasuke-k-kun's bath." I stuttered, feeling so embarrassed and shy.

I tried turning away, but the vivid image of his wet, naked body was stuck in my head. Not to mention that smirk of his. I swallowed again. When did my brain have the capacity to get me so perversely engaged? This is all Naruto's fault. Him and his mentor.

"Why are you running away, Sakura? It's not like you have never seen me naked before," he said.

His voice was smooth, warm and quiet, reminding me of crushed velvet and melted chocolate. He and his parents had definitely planned this. It made me stop dead in my tracks.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. "I'm not running away." I said, my voice seriously hoarse due to arousal. I cleared it. "I'm just giving you the privacy you need to take your shower. It's only considerate for you to take your shower alone."

"Just how sure are you that I want to take this shower alone?" he asked, sounding dark and seductive.

I promptly lost my voice. I opened my mouth to respond, but no sound came out. My brain cells had totally refused to formulate a logical response.

I felt desire rapidly pooling in my stomach as my centre got wet.

I really, _really _hate hormones.

"Come join me in the shower. I promise not to ravish you too much."

I had every intention of turning around and politely declining his request(s), but my body had totally refused to move. It's like it was betraying me, waiting for Itachi to come and get me and take me with him into the shower.

Kami-sama, hormones just sucked.

_You heard the man. Go join him in the shower. He is right, you know. It's not like you've never seen him naked before._

**That was only once! **I replied to my Inner.

_You enjoyed it, didn't you? You loved what you saw when he got naked for you. Go for it. He's inviting you, dammit. How can you refuse the invitation of a sex god to go shower with him? Are you out of your mind, woman?_

**I am not refusing. I am merely politely declining his offer. I have the interrogation today, and my brain functions need to be in order when Ibiki is asking me questions like a criminal. **

_Hmph, _my inner snorted, _as if your brain functions every time he smirks at you. Just go for it. Spending _very _ample time with your fiancé and taking a shower at the same time. You're killing two birds with one stone._

**What do you mean killing two birds with one stone? As if you're always alert when you get a whiff of-**

I suddenly felt an arm wrap around my waist, and my body was pulled backwards, into Itachi's wet body.

Correction: Itachi's _wet, naked _body.

I opened my mouth to ask him what the _hell _he was doing, but no sound came out. I felt my clothes slide off my body to the floor, and my knees promptly weakened. He bent down to my height, and the second his lips grazed my ear, my pulse rate increased, and breathing was rapidly becoming a problem.

I could see the remains of my brain pooled at the base of my skull. We medics have quite the imagination.

"Were you waiting for me to come for you, my queen? You could have simply told me," he whispered in my ear, as his arm that was not holding me was slowly moving up my side.

All non-reflexive brain functions stopped working. I was so wet, I actually felt my fluids flow down my legs. This was not good.

He promptly lifted me off my feet and carried me, bridal style into the shower. As the warm water hit my head, I revelled in the sensation, and for a split second, I forgot I was going to be ravished senseless.

Itachi's (extremely talented) mouth on my neck brought me back to reality. As he was suckling hard on my pulse (damn that weak spot of mine), he pushed me to the wall, my back hitting the cold tiles a little rougher than I would have liked, but his mouth more than compensated for it.

I immediately closed my eyes to enjoy what he was doing to me, as my hands instinctively reached out to grab his silky hair and my legs wrapped themselves around his waist.

He took this opportunity to push himself closer to me and squeeze me between his god-like body and the wall. His lips slowly moved upward and he devoured my mouth with as much enthusiasm as Ino-pig would share the latest gossip.

Oh _Kami..._Uchiha Itachi was a _**master **_at anything and everything to do with seduction and sex. That was a given.

He moved his large, cool hands to my ass, and before I could yelp in indignation, he actually squeezed it, making me gasp into the kiss, and making him shove his tongue right into my mouth.

I think this was payback for the first time we slept together and I accidentally-_accidentally_-squeezed his ass.

I found myself gasping for air, and he let go of my mouth for a split second before sealing his lips on my neck again. Without wanting to, I let out a slow, silent whimper, but Itachi and his ninja ears actually heard.

"I will _never _tire of ravishing you. I assume you are aware of this, my darling?" he whispered in my ear, sounding so perversely sexy and his voice having lowered an octave, I felt myself get even wetter, if that was possible.

It was not the shower that was causing the wetness. Goodness, I really, _really _needed to stop hanging out with Naruto so much. I think his perverted tendencies have really gotten to me.

Before I could will my brain to attempt to formulate an answer, Itachi was not done yet.

"I do hope you are ready, my queen, because I'm going to fuck you right through this wall."

Uchiha Itachi is a man of his word.

Well, the shower took longer than expected, mostly because Itachi decided to 'fuck me right through the wall' as he so eloquently put it. Even with my expert healing, there was still a slight limp in my step, and Itachi just could not stop smirking that panty-dropping smirk of his.

Perverted bastard, I thought, as my face turned twenty shades of red and my Inner came round after passing out at some point in the shower.

A talk with Kami-sama was long overdue.

Shisui, whose sharingan was activated by the time Itachi and I were walking out of his house. Naturally, having the typical freakish Uchiha observance, he noticed my limp, and Itachi's smirk.

Contrary to popular belief, Shisui is not a knuckle-head. He is an Uchiha, and all Uchiha are smart. It's a genetic trait, added to their already devastatingly good looks and shinobi prowess. He noted the reason why I was limping when he connected it to his baby cousin's smirk.

He immediately notified his fellow professional pervert, Gemna, and only threats of grievous bodily harm prevented them from saying anything, but it could not prevent the smirks.

"Let's begin, shall we Uchiha Taichou?" Ibiki asked. Itachi nodded and the interrogation begun.

Two and a half hours later, we walked out of that cold scary, cell, more mentally exhausted than anything else. Shisui was going to the police force offices to find out how the investigations were going, while Gemna and Itachi were going to ANBU headquarters.

I had a tiring shift to work in the hospital. I sighed as I headed there. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted and was in no mood to work.

I got to the hospital, and just before I even got to my office, I was being called to the special ward where the special shinobi are admitted.

I got to the hospital and found a nurse, Kita, wanting to administer anaesthesia to a Hyuuga. To say my eyes almost bulged out of my sockets was an understatement, because they almost did. Almost.

"What the _hell_ do you think you are doing?" I shrieked at her.

She slightly jumped and turned abruptly. The second she saw me she hid her hands behinds her back at shinobi speed, but I had already seen what was in the syringe.

I sighed. Kita was a high calibre medic. She _knew _that anaesthesia was _never _administered on any member of the Hyuuga clan because it blinded them, rendering the Byakugan useless.

"H-Ha-haruno-san...erm...I-I was...I mean, I'm so-"

"Why were you giving this Hyuuga clan member anaesthetic when you know very well it's bad for the Byakugan?" I asked, trying to keep calm and control my rage.

"I...it-it's been a long day, and-"

"As a senior medic and head medic of the Black Ops, I hereby suspend you until an investigation on your behaviour proves you have no intent to harm any and every shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato and its ruling clans. Please give me your badge and wait outside for your suspension letter." I said tightly, weariness slipping into my voice.

"Bu-"

"Just fucking do it, Kita. I am _not _in the mood," I growled, feeling the control of my temper slip from my grasp.

She handed me her badge, and I teleported myself to my office to sign her suspension letter. When I handed it to her, she showed no signs of remorse, only indifference.

I narrowed my eyes as she walked away, my instinct warning me of something not being right.

I had a very bad feeling about Yamamoto Kita.

***dodges bricks, eggs and rotten vegetables thrown at head* Look guys, I'm sorry. First I take forever and then some to update, then when I do I leave you guys hanging on a toothpick.**

**BITE MEEEEE! :p**

**Anyway, I'm gonna give you the classic excuse of holidays. No classes, no assignments, and just generally no uni, so my brain isn't allowed to think for a while.**

**Look on the bright side: all the perverts on here (including myself) can imagine Itachi, the ultimate sex-god, wet and naked in the shower. *reaches for tissues to stop nosebleed*...need I say more?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Yo mina.**

**Now, before we begin, I'd like to clarify something. I've got a review from a reader called Lymira (thanks, by the way) pointing out that the scene from the hospital from the previous chapter is from another story.**

**I'd like to say that I thought out that scene myself and if it is the same it is purely coincidence. (Gosh, I sound like a lawyer or something.) I write more that read on , and as such I have never come across any story of the same kind of idea. As a writer, I respect other people's work and I cannot stoop low as to deliberately plagiarise another person's work.**

**Onwards, then. :D**

**Mendoukusei 19.**

Mikito kaa-chan and Fugaku otoo-san looked as innocent as Sasuke-kun did in his baby pictures.

They were _definitely _up to no good.

"Aaaah, Sakura-chan. What can we do for you?" the Uchiha Clan matriarch asked a little too sweetly.

I raised my eyebrow in incredulity. Really?

"You are aware that Itachi put a genjutsu on me last night which caused a little...erm...drama this morning?" I asked, trying to sound serious, despite the vivid red my face must have been looking.

"Aaaah, I wondered why it was a little noisy this morning in Ita-chan's shower, as if he was slamming something against the wall," Mikito kaa-chan said, sounding cheeky and Fugaku otoo-san smirked very devilishly.

It was exactly like Itachi's, the very same smirk he had on as he fucked me senseless against the wall.

By the time this particular train of thought was passing through my mind, my face was so red, I swear I was actually radiating heat.

I mean, did they really want grandchildren that badly?

"Moving on swiftly," I ploughed on, "I wanted to speak to you, Fugaku otoo-san. I'd like a personal request."

The room suddenly became quiet. This is why I loved this clan so much. They always knew when it was time to be serious, and when it was time to be less serious.

After all, as Sasuke-kun once pointed out, the Uchiha never joke. They are just less serious than normal.

I sighed. This was going to be a very hard request to fulfil, but it was worth a try, none the less.

"I would like to request the Konoha Police Force to personally investigate the behaviour of a senior nurse at the Hospital called Yamamoto Kita."

Mikito kaa-chan froze, and Fugaku otoo-san reacted the usual way a typical Uchiha male would: indifference.

"I'm afraid I alone do not have the power to grant that request. Protocol clearly states that-"

"I must go to the Hokage, head of the Police force, Clan head, village council and clan council. I have the support of all but your clan council. I believe with sufficient evidence and support I can garner their approval and have this investigation begun as soon as possible." I said slowly.

Mikito kaa-chan had her Uchiha mask of indifference on. Shit was about to go down.

"It may not be any of my business, but why exactly would you like this investigation?" Fugaku otoo-san asked.

Outside my face was serious, but I was internally panicking. It was no secret that the Uchiha and Hyuuga were serious rivals, always had been and always will be. Even Itachi and Hinata had an immense rivalry, Itachi's mastery of the sharingan, genius intellect and all rounded prowess as a shinobi, and Hinata's mastery of the Byakugan, unbelievably spectacular chakra control, and superb analytical and tracking skills.

It's just that both were so properly brought up that they chose not to show the whole shinobi world of their rivalry.

Quite unlike their fathers really.

Unless, of course, they were in a training ground and/or a battle field.

The Uchiha and Hyuuga however, were both intelligent enough to know that both bloodline limits were almost invincible when working simultaneously, and as much as their clan leaders would never, _never _admit that that in public, it was an unspoken truth that both clans respected each other.

I sighed. I had no idea how the Uchiha Clan head would react.

"The medic I mentioned earlier, Yamamoto Kita is a highly qualified medic who is an excellent asset to Konoha and the hospital. I however found her about to administer anaesthesia to an unconscious Hyuuga clan member. As you are aware, anaesthesia is never administered to Hyuuga because it destroys their ability to use the Byakugan, destroying the cornea and optic nerve, rendering them blind."

I paused for the information I had given them to sink in first. Fugaku otoo-san nodded for me to continue, the action barely perceptible. Mikito kaa-chan merely blinked at me.

"I do not know why she did this, and when I asked her she had no reason. At first, I thought it was sheer medical negligence, but Konoha Medics are too professional to go that far. I suspect she's, at worst, a spy using a henge or at best, a mole hired by an enemy. Either way, it's not good news for us. I need cold, hard proof to convict her of either espionage or treachery, and the only people capable and proficient enough to deal with that is the Konoha Police force." I finished.

"Then it is settled. Chichi-ue, Shisui and I will deal with the clan. Sakura, you and Haha-ue go talk to Tsunade-sama. I can guarantee you this investigation will have begun by dusk." I heard a smooth, lilting tenor somewhere in the shadows. Before I turned to see where Itachi and Shisui were standing, they were gone, together with Fugaku otoo-san.

I was slightly miffed. "Do they always do that?" I asked jerking my thumb in the direction the boys were.

Mikito kaa-chan simply smiled, before walking towards the kitchen.

"You get used to it darling. Now, let me finish these rice balls then we go see the Hokage."

Two hours later found me in the Hokage's office, with the apparent important people.

Tsunade Shishou was extremely irritated. She had her left hand on her chin, as her right one held her cup of sake. She was sulking like an overgrown baby.

Itachi had his blank, indifferent face on but judging by his relaxed stance, he was quite amused.

Shisui was grinning, not at all bothering to hide his amusement, which, of course, served to irritate Shishou even more.

Fugaku otoo-san and Hiyashi-sama were being the immature brats they normally are around each other, not looking at each other and glaring.

Hinata was irritated. She had her hand on her forehead the whole time, her hair falling into her eyes.

Mikito kaa-cham cared less. She was amusing herself, playing with small fire jutsu, burning random bits of paper in the bin.

"What does your bloody clan council say, Uchiha?" Shishou growled.

"They approve. Shisui has started investigations as we speak. It will be up to you to rate this as grade three, to make it all the more urgent and important. It is obvious that this breach in our system is going to cost us, as a village and as a country." Fugaku otoo-san replied smoothly, in typical Uchiha fashion.

"Good. Now get the hell out of my office. I've got paper work-"

BOOM!

All our heads snapped in the direction of the explosion. A massive bolt of electricity could be seen. My eyes narrowed.

Shishou was on her feet.

"Itachi, tell the other ANBU commanders and all the other jounin that this is a level two attack. Get to the battle field right this moment and defend the village, "she ordered. "Shizune, hospital. The rest of you, GO FIGHT!" she yelled, as she did her seals, no doubt to teleport to the hospital.

Teleporting myself into the area where the fighting was taking place, I gasped.

We were not being attacked by any of our enemies, not Kumo, not Iwa, not Oto.

"Why the hell are we being attacked by Kiri? I thought they were our allies," Hana asked, suddenly appearing from nowhere by my side. She had come with her triplets, and they were surrounding us, snarling dangerously.

"I have not the slightest idea," I replied, moving in a circle with her, back to back.

We were being surrounded by the Kiri shinobi, but we had no idea of what the hell to do. They were our allies, we could not just attack them.

However, _they _were attacking _us. _Even if we were given the permission to attack them, should we attack to kill, or to injure? Even if we injured, them, how bad should the extent of the injury be? We also had the kind of fighters to consider. These were obviously Kiri elite, seeing as how coordinated and precise the attacks were.

All that side, why the hell was Kiri attacking us?

I dodged a kunai thrown at me. I turned and saw a kunoichi I'd recognised. Her name was Yuuki, and as much she was one of the biggest bitches know in the shinobi world, she was one of the formidable kunoichi I had ever met.

"Oi, What's up? Why are you guys attacking us?" I demanded.

No response. She instead lunged at me. I dodged, before swiftly turning around her and pinning her to a tree.

"Why the fuck are you guys attacking us?" I whispered roughly, almost losing my temper.

Again, there was no response. Her eyes, though, were blank. Not emotionless blank, like an Uchiha, but lifeless blank, as if they had no control of their actions-

Suddenly, the light bulb lit in my head. No control of their actions. Shinobi are always, _always _in control of their actions, no matter what the situation, unless...

"Oi, Hana, cover me. I wanna check on something," I yelled at my teammate, despite the chaos going on around me.

She delivered a solid punch to some shinobi after her before glaring down at me. "Hurry," she said gruffly.

I quickly did a check up on Yuuki's chakra patterns. They were haphazard and confused. Very little chakra was going to her brain, only enough for her to carry out orders, and, of course, to live.

My eyes narrowed. I did the necessary hand seals and concentrated. I closed my eyes before slowly whispering "Kai!"

The sudden brightness returned to Yuuki's brown eyes. She reached for her head.

"Oooooooh man, where am I? What the hell...?" she opened one eye and looked at me. "What the hell are you doing in Kiri, bitch?" she snarled.

I bit my tongue to hold back my retort. This was not the time to deliver scathing come backs to disoriented kunoichi.

"What's going on down there?" Hana demanded.

I gulped in a huge amount of air in my lungs before yelling out "GENJUTSU!"

Suddenly, it was silent. Everything stopped, including the Kiri shinobi. Even time seemed to freeze. I went on.

"All the Kiri shinobi have been put into a genjutsu. Take them to training ground 7, then all of us proficient in genjutsu release them from it," I finished, breathless.

As soon as my breath evened out, I headed straight to training ground 7 to find the Kiri shinobi huddled together in a group, cornered from all directions, totally surrounded by Konoha shinobi.

Right above them in the trees, I saw Kurenai-sensei. Being one of the best genjutsu users in Konoha's history, she would obviously be leading.

"Hurry the hell up, Sakura. It's not like we have all day," Sasuke-kun hissed from behind Kakashi-sensei. I rolled my eyes before joining them.

"On the count of three," Kurenai-sensei said. Suddenly, everyone's hands were flying into a series of seals, and when she whispered the signal, we said the release phrase at the same time.

"Kai!"

Within a few moments, all the Kiri shinobi were groaning and holding their heads.

"Someone needs to go tell Tsunade-sama," Shisui said, looking around. With a glance at a particular operative Itachi had a shinobi off to go tell Shishou what was happening.

"The rest of us stay here and help out the Kiri shinobi. We need as much knowledge as possible about this attack.

Itachi walked over to Yuuki. "Can you please tell us why you attacked Konoha?"

Yuuki's eyes were wider than saucers. I swear there was drool on the side of her lip. "Ah, of course, Ita-kun," she cooed, voice lowered and eyelids fluttering.

My eyes narrowed and I was clenching my fists. I could hear the sound the leather was making from the friction caused by my fingers on my palm.

Yuuki, on the other hand, was inching ever closer to Itachi, _my _fiancé, deliberately flirting with him, hoping it would go further, _in my face._

_What the fuck does she think she's doing? _My inner growled, every bit as angry as me. _Look at her, the mannerless slut. Look at how she's wrapping herself around him. Get off my man, you fucking bitch!_

"Erm, Sakura?" Sasuke-kun said, bored tone in place.

"Yes, Sasuke?" I replied icily.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him freeze. I never called him Sasuke without the –kun. Ever.

Unless, of course, I'm only just refraining from breaking his nose with my pinky finger.

"C-could you tone it down a bit, please? You-you're releasing quite the killer intent." He went on carefully, slowly edging away from me.

"...and that's all I remember. Next thing I know, the pink haired brat is standing above me, and I'm in Konoha," I heard Yuuki's voice say, sounding sultry, looking up at Itachi and fluttering her eyebrows.

_Did she just call us brat? _I really needed to destroy something.

"Are you aware if Mizukage-sama was also under the influence of the perpetrators?" Itachi asked, his smooth voice reaching my ears.

"Nope. But if you wanted, perhaps you could lead me to your communications room and then we could try and contact her from there," she said, practically squeezing herself onto _my fiancé._

Itachi merely looked at her and said nothing.

"Oooooh, I think our little Saku-chan is a little...hmmm, what's the best word, _jealous? _Never thought you were the possessive kind," I heared Shisui's voice somewhere and some sniggering. Had to be Genma.

I on the other hand, grabbed a handful of the nearest tree trunk next to me and squeezed. I then stopped squeezing it (leaving a nice print of my hand on the trunk where I had squeezed) and turned around to face it, uprooted it, before systematically breaking it into splinters.

All around, faces paled in fear. I could hear gulps and see beads of sweat on people's faces, particularly the Kiri shinobi. I smirked before turning to Shisui.

"Shisui," I begun, widening my smirk into a sweet smile, "one more word from you, and I _will _rearrange your skeletal system _without _any of your Uchiha blood messing up this field." I finished, making sure my voice was dripping with sugar.

It was always amusing to see Shisui extremely terrified. "G-g-got it." He replied, before gulping as he looked at the splinters that were once a full grown tree.

I turned to Genma, who's brown eyes were wide with terror as well. "That applies to you too, Gemna dear."

He nodded vigorously, before getting up and going to hide behind Kakashi-sensei.

Intimidation is the best tactic to get your point across to shinobi. As usual, Shishou was right. I could not help the smugness I was feeling.

"Sakura," I heard Itachi call. I turned around to face him. He walked until he was right in front of me and stopped. He looked around at the splinters surrounding me, before looking at my gloves (they had very tiny pieces of wood sticking out of them) then he locked gazes with me again.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

The left part of his mouth twitched slightly, and there was a bright spark in his eye before it disappeared again.

"I would be honoured if you would accompany me to go see Hokage-sama about this attack," he said, voice blank.

Oh, he would be honoured indeed, sneaky bastard.

I felt the colour flood to my cheeks. Why the hell was I blushing?

"S-sure," I replied, before hurrying to walk in front of him. Despite this, I could feel his eyes bore through my back, and I could practically hear that sexy smirk of his.

"We should...have some time alone after all this, don't you think?" he asked, his amusement obvious.

I sighed inwardly.

**Sorry, another crappy battle description. I apologise.**


	20. Chapter 20

**You know, at some point when I was writing this chapter, I decided to watch some Naruto archives, you know, those episodes waaaaaaaaaaaaay back, and I randomly landed on the part where Itachi was back in Konoha for the first time since he annihilated his clan, then the fight with Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi then he went all tsukiyomi and stuff, and I swear my brain just went blank.**

**Itachi is just too, too hot for his own good. Jesus Christ...**

**Moving on...**

**Mendoukusei 20.**

I _hate _my life.

I was standing in Shihsou's office, watching her and Mei, Godaime Mizukage, groan and whine.

"Tsunadeeeeeeeeeeeeee," Mizukage-sama whined. "Heeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaal meeeee. My head hurts."

"Go away, Mei. Shut up. Trying to concentrate chakra here," came Shishou's reply, equally inebriated as she tried to gather chakra at her finger tips. All she was getting were sparks, meaning she was failing spectacularly.

She must have been _totally_ wasted.

I sighed.

"With all due respect, what the hell are you guys doing?" I asked, the irritation very evident in my voice.

They both turned to me, still holding sake bottles in their hands. Both of them had red eyes and there were tens of bottles around them. Just how long had they been drinking for? I'd always wondered how such drunks ended up running their villages rather efficiently.

"Saaaaaaaku-chaaaaaaan? Is that you?" Mizukage-sama asked, squinting her eyes at me.

I sighed again, long and deep. I repeat, I _loathe _my life.

It had been two weeks since Kiri attacked us. Itachi and I promptly went and informed Tsunade Shishou about what had happened, from the beginning of the attack to the dispelling of the genjutsu. Mizukage-sama was immediately informed, and within six days she had arrived in Konoha. (her forces had been told not to leave till she gets here).

She looked at them and confirmed that they were her elite forces, before immediately grilling them over what had happened. As expected of genjutsu, no one had any idea of what happened prior to their attacking us.

After sighing in defeat, she promptly teleported herself into Shishou's office and threatened skinning anyone who dared interrupt alive with (one of) her bloodline limit(s) before banging the door shut. No one could hear what was going on inside there, since the Hokage's office is sound proof. I could guess, though, that they were busy getting drunk. It's all they do when thaey are together anyway.

Three hours later, there were two breakthroughs in both investigations by Shisui and his Police Force. They knew exactly who put a genjutsu on those Kiri shinobi to attack us, and they had narrowed down the suspects to the murder of the Hyuuga clan member using Kita as the start of their investigation.

This information was obviously very important to Shishou, and rather important to Mizukage-sama. However, neither I nor anybody else could give them this information because they were piss drunk.

I decided to break the door to Shishou's office (or rather, just rip it off the hinges) and go give her the information, no matter how drunk she was.

Sighing, I walked over to where both of them were slouched over. I gathered chakra at the tips of my fingers and placed them on their temples. After healing them, I took the sake bottles away from them and gave then to Shizune nee-chan. She'd keep them away from them until I was done with them.

"Oi, Sakura, what's the big deal? Where's the sake?" Shishou demanded, now sober.

"Thanks, Sakura darling. Your mentor here totally refused to heal me, selfish old hag," Mizukage-sama said with a smirk.

"What the hell-"

"Shishou, I really don't think this is the time. Shisui has some very important news to tell you, and it does involve all the fracas that's been going on recently." I interrupted her, raising an eyebrow at their antics. They were acting like Hiyashi-sama and Fugaku otoo-san whenever they are aound each other.

Suddenly, both of them became serious. Shishou nodded stiffly, and Shisui walked in, serious look on his face holding a pile of papers.

Whenever Shisui was serious, things were not to be joked around with.

"Oto is the cause of the genjutsu on the Kiri shinobi. We strongly suspect Orochimaru and Kabuto did it. Retarded characteristics aside, both of them are powerful enough to pull of such a feat when they work together. We have also found out that Oto forces have thinned significantly. It's no secret that both Kabuto and his master are sadists, so it would be safe to conclude that they were willing to risk sacrificing some shinobi therefore getting weaker to pull off this operation successfully. It also shows just how desperate they are to get the sharingan."

It was deathly quiet in the room.

"About the investigation on one Yamamoto Kita, we have established that she is the mole, but we cannot find out her connections to Kumo. Why Kumo, you ask? Well, Kumo has always wanted the Byakugan, and her victim was supposed to be a Hyuuga. We have also found out that she is being controlled by someone in Konoha, but she has refused to tell us who. We had some ANBU operatives follow her and discover her behavioural patterns and habits for the past week, and going by that we can establish that she has at least two superiors in Konoha who she directly reports to. In fact, the reason we cannot seem to find any connections between herself and Kumo is because she probably _doesn't have any._ Ibiki and I have decided if she decides not to co-operate, we shall be forced to let Itachi deal with her." He concluded, putting the huge stack of papers on Shishou's desk.

Shishou froze at the last statement. I just stared dumbfounded at Shisui, too shocked to react.

"What's wrong?" Mizukage-sama asked, concern clouding her face as she looked from Shishou from me.

Shisui sighed, something that was very rare. Whenever Shisui sighed, he was going through some serious internal conflict, concerning some of the decisions he has to make as head of the Police Force.

"Whenever we capture a mole, spy, or just an enemy shinobi within our territory, we bring them in for questioning. As expected, they never co-operate at first, but our chief interrogator, Morino Ibiki is a little...intimidating. He has very...unorthodox, for lack of a better word, ways to get even the most hard core shinobi to co-operate with us. However, there are still some shinobi who can't crack under that pressure. This is when we bring in Uchiha Itachi to deal with them." He explained.

"Wow...scary," Mizukage-sama said slowly.

"Itachi uses tsukiyomi, a genjutsu technique that can cause the utmost psychological torture known to man. Tsukiyomi is his realm, his world and he controls everything, time, mass, space, _everything. _ He can make one second seem like a day and vice versa. Tsukiyomi is the most powerful genjutsu in existence, and only Uchiha with the mangekyou sharingan have been known to use it." Shisui continued.

Mizukage-sama stared at him blankly.

Shisui sighed again. "Explaining about the mangekyou is very complex, but one reason why that technique is feared by even shinobi of kage status is that only two known shinobi in history have been able to successfully activate and use tsukiyomi without the resulting side effects: Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Madara."

It was then that even Mizukage-sama froze, her eyes widening considerably. "Is that the technique he used to kill Madara?" she asked, her voice calm, but the fear blatantly showing in her eyes.

Shisui nodded.

"Then why do you want him to use it?"

"He uses a milder version of it. As I said, Tsukityomi is Itachi's realm. He _owns _it. He decides how brutal he wants to be. We use it as a last resort, and it's the only way we can get whatever information we want from anyone." He said.

"No wonder Konoha is so powerful," Mizukage-sama said quietly. "So when is this going to happen?"

"Tommorrow morning at dawn," Shisui said, before he turned around and walked out.

"Sakura, get someone to go fix that door, and go have a talk with your fiancé. That Kita might be a traitor, but she's a really gifted medic, and I don't want to have to condemn her to death without ascertaining for sure that she did this out of her own free will." Shishou said, before walking to her desk and sitting down, burying her face in her hands.

"Tell Shizune to bring me my sake, seeing as my shinobi elite are gonna be the end of me. I really question my mentality as to why I took this job."

I thought about it. A little (_**A LOT OF**_) sake wouldn't hurt her much. She's right anyway. Her shinobi elite would be the end of her.

I walked out of the office, remembering to tell Shizune nee-chan to take the sake to Shishou. All the while I was thinking, who or what had gotten Kita locked up in this whole mess?

I slowly walked the whole way to the Uchiha district, heading to the main house. I was deep in thought, trying to link everything that Shisui had said in Shishou's office.

I got into the house and headed straight upstairs, not even bothering to notice whether I was alone or not. I felt a powerful grip on my forearm and was immediately pulled into the kitchen.

"What's the matter, Sakura?" Sasuke-kun's baritone inquired. I looked at him, and as much as he had that blank look on his face, I knew him well enough to understand that he was concerned.

I sighed. "A lot is going on, Sasuke-kun. I need to talk to Itachi first, then depending on what he tells me, I'll get back to you."

I left him in the kitchen, and sprinted up into the room Itachi and I shared.

"Hey, Ita-kun, I reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally..." I stared.

I blinked twice, before my brain confirmed the fact that I was not dreaming.

About four feet in front of me, and a foot from the window of our huge bedroom was my fiancé, holding an enemy nin-_an enemy nin_-by the neck. In his left hand was his ANBU katana, the tip pointing downward, dripping with blood. He was devoid of his hitai-ate, raven hair unbound, flowing like black waves around broad shoulders and an _extremely _well muscled back. The muscles on his arms and said back were hard and tense, flexed because of his rage. There was the darkest aura I'd ever felt on any shinobi rolling off him in waves.

And, he was wearing nothing but black jeans, hanging very low on his narrow hips, and just visible above said jeans were black boxers.

_H-h-he looks e-_exactly _like he did in the last d-d-dinner before our ANBU exams, _my inner stuttered, absolutely not believing her eyes.

It was an absolute _sin _to be this sexy. It just shouldn't be allowed.

"What is it, Sakura?" He asked, his voice quiet, calm, low and deadly. His lilting tenor was hard, and it belayed the completely _murderous _mood he was in.

In my opinion, Itachi was his _sexiest _when pissed off. Whenever he lost _all _control, and just let his rage come to the surface and take over, is when it took every single ounce of control I had not to just take him and ride his cock till we both got sore.

The angrier he got, the more alluring and tempting he got.

Bad influence from my boys again. Kakashi-sensei's masochism, Naruto's perverse tendencies and Sasuke-kun's just not giving a fucking damn.

"I-I-I wanted to talk to you," I said quietly, not wanting to turn his rage on me, though, no doubt it would end _beautifully_, despite the fact that I would lose the capacity to walk for a few days.

"Can it wait? I would like to show this useless piece of _filth _what happens when he dares sneak into _my _country, into _my _village, into _my _district and ultimately, into _my_ room to try and get information and expect not to die." He continued.

My mouth went dry. I could barely speak, and all I did was stare.

"You are _useless. _ That Raikage fool was wasting his time sending you into Konoha. All he did was send you to your death. You are a _shame _to the lowest of mediocre shinobi. If you are elite, then Kumo is just a sick, miserable _joke. _You are not worth dying by genjutsu," he said, still holding the shinobi by the neck on the wall, before slowly pushing his katana through the heart and yanking it out immediately.

Not a single sound was heard from the Kumo shinobi, only a slight gurgle because of the blood from his mouth, and he was dead within minutes. Itachi then turned to face me, his bangs covering his eyes before he looked at me. My eyes widened, and a quiet gasp escaped my mouth.

Itachi was _fuming. _His _mangekyou sharingan _was activated, the blades spinning slowly. His sinful lips were pressed together, and there was blood splattered all over his chest. His hands were balled into fists, and his muscles were still tense.

I felt a very familiar warmth in the pit of my stomach. Kami, he was _gorgeous. _ Absolutely _sexy._

"Excuse me, my queen. I'm quite honestly not in the mood of talking now. Tomorrow perhaps?" he asked, as he walked right past me into the bath. He was probably going to clean up and get fully dressed, though I much preferred him just the way he was at the moment.

"But Ita-kun-"

"Please," he said, so quietly, it was almost inaudible.

Sighing, I agreed. It was going to be a long day tomorrow. I just _knew _it.

Hold on, who the _hell _had Itachi left this dead Kumo ninja's body here for?


	21. Chapter 21

**Now, now, children, I think it's about time we all got our hormones in order, ne? I know Itachi is just in another league of unexplainable sexiness when pissed, but let us not forget about the main storyline, ie *whispers conspiratorially* there's a mole in Konoha...*ominous music*...**

**Despite this, even I'll admit. The sight of Itachi pissed off and brutally murdering an enemy would turn me on rather than scare the shit out of me.**

**Moving on swiftly then...**

**Mendoukusei 21.**

For the first time in my life, I didn't know how to feel.

I should have been pissed, because after killing some random enemy nin, Itachi left him in our room, leaving me to go destroy the corpse, causing Sasuke-kun to turn green, Mikoto kaa-chan to shake her head and Fugaku otoo-san to raise an eyebrow and grunt.

_What the hell was wrong with this family?_ The eldest son had been busy driving katana in enemy nin's hearts _in the house _and they acted like it was an everyday thing?

Yet again, it could have been. With Uchiha, no one's ever really sure.

Why was I marrying into such a retarded clan again?

Oh yes, said clan heir, arguably the most powerful shinobi in the country had bluntly told me I am _his _and no one else's and then proceeded to claim me in all aspects of my humanity; psychologically, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

_Especially _physically.

I should be amused, because of the look on Kita's face when she was duly informed by a sadistically smirking Ibiki that she would be interrogated by Itachi. The look on her face was a cross between terrified, excited, confused and fangirly. The only look that was more epic was the look on Sasuke-kun's face right before he fainted after Itachi told everyone we were engaged.

I should be indifferent, because as Shikamaru would say, this was all just _troublesome._

Eventually, I settled for indifference.

"Okay," Shisui said, flickering right by my side in his trademark technique. "The main reason you are here is to try and talk to Kita first. Itachi is not in a good mood, clearly, so there's a probability he's going to be a real asshole, Uchiha style, the moment he steps in there. You're also here to heal her immediately he releases his tsukiyomi. Can't have her dying before she's tried for treason, if guilty," he added hastily.

I nodded, taking in his tired appearance. I frowned in concern. Shisui and I had become remarkably close since I joined ANBU, and I was a little worried that he was over-exerting himself.

"Sure, Shisui. Thanks. You okay, though? I really think you need to go home and take a rest. You've worked extremely hard up to this point and you truly deserve it." I told him.

He just looked at me and nodded, before flickering off again.

I sighed, before looking at the ominous door of the interrogation room that led to where Kita was locked up. I swallowed my fear and walked into the room.

As usual with every room in the Torture and Interrogations Centre, this one was cold, dark and dreary. In the middle of the room was Kita, tied and bound by chakra strings to a chair. She was looking at her feet, her eyes shadowed. She clearly showed signs of unadulterated, pure terror: sweat on her forehead and panting. Ibiki had worked his magic as usual, but even that was not enough to crack her. No wonder Kumo, or her superior traitors had chosen her. She was remarkably mentally strong.

I looked at her, empathy for her lightly tugging at my heart. I had absolutely had no idea where to start.

"Kita," I began. She didn't respond. I sighed. "Look here, I'm gonna be blunt. Why don't you tell me exactly what is going on. You know very well if you don't talk, Uchiha taichou is going to come in here and use tsukiyomi on you. This whole fiasco has caused enormous anger and frustration to all elite shinobi in the village, more so Shisui-sama as head of Police force and Uchiha taichou, Hatake taichou, Hyuuga taichou and Nara taichou as ANBU captains. All five are answerable to the village council as to why they never figured this out earlier."

She sniffed, not exactly the response I was looking for, but it was a reaction. At least I got something.

"Uchiha taichou, in particular, is not amused in the least. I can guarantee you he's going to be absolutely ruthless when he gets you into his tsukiyomi, so the earlier you admit what is going on, the better this is going to go for all of us."

"What d'you mean 'the better this is going to go for all of us', huh? What's in it for me? I'm already doomed. I'm already gonna die anyways. Might as well face that fucking genjutsu coz my fate is sealed. I've got nothing to lose anymore. If tsukiyomi is gonna break me, well and good. If it's gonna kill me, the better. I don't care anymore." She cried out, voice full of bitterness and regret.

I was quiet. I had nothing to respond to her outcry. Her shoulders were shaking and she was quietly sobbing.

"Didn't you know that would be your fate when you accepted to betray Konoha?" I asked her quietly.

She choked on her tears, shaking her head vigorously, as if denying it all. Her sobs got louder, and I could see the tears dropping from her face to her clothes.

"I wasn't supposed to get caught," she whispered.

I did feel sorry for her. She was one of the more competent medics in the hospital, and the lack of her abilities would definitely be felt. Unfortunately, she brought this upon herself. As she bitterly admitted, her fate was sealed.

I walked toward the door and opened it. Standing outside it were Itachi, Shisui and Ibiki. I called them in, and they entered into the room, walking behind me. To be honest, I was quite scared for her.

Itachi kept on walking forward, even when the rest of us stopped.

"Yamamoto Kita," he addressed her, his voice calm and demanding. "You have been accused of treason, a penalty punishable by death. You have refused to cooperate with authorities. Explain yourself."

I gulped, my fear almost very apparent. I could _hear_ the anger in his voice. Even Shisui looked a bit apprehensive, though he covered it well with the typical Uchiha mask of indifference.

I saw Kita's eyes widen in sheer terror. She must have been eye to eye with Itachi's sharingan. He generally had an intense gaze, without his kekkei genkai activated. Whenever he activated his sharingan, most shinobi would be paralysed with fear. If you got him pissed off enough to activate his mangekyou, you'd practically be brain dead. Even his clan members were terrified of him whenever he activated it.

"It seems you refuse to talk. I shall have to forcefully get the information from you then," he hissed.

It is then I noticed the window in front of us was reflecting what Itachi was doing, seeing as we could already see Kita's reactions. I saw his sharingan start spinning fast, the three tomoe becoming bladed, developing into the infamous, universally feared Mangekyou Sharingan. He was the only person alive who could activate it, since the other known Uchiha who could activate it was Uchiha Madara, and he was dead.

For a moment, time froze. There was pin drop silence, and no one moved a muscle.

The tension was unbelievably palpable.

Then we heard Kita whimpering.

I've (obviously) never been caught in tsukiymi before, but I know enough about genjutsu to realise that once a victim was verbally expressing their distress, shit was seriously going down.

I also knew for a fact that Uchiha Itachi was _an expert _genjutsu user. So good at it, that even Kurenai-sensei, a genjutsu _specialist _actually _struggled_ whenever she was in a genjutsu battle with him. You could see the strain and concentration on her whenever she fought him, and if you were lucky, she may even begin sweating. Genjutsu is a stealthy and fast way of killing people, extremely useful for assassinations or illegal recons. It never left any evidence behind.

However, if the victim of the visions began whimpering, the psychological damage could be at best in need of an operation or at worst incurable.

Going by how loudly Kita was whimpering, her situation was rapidly going towards the latter category.

I looked at Shisui, who just looked tired. Ibiki looked like he'd seen this quite a number of times, so he was barely moved. I decided to take matters into my own hands. If he turned his rage on me, we could always _make up _after.

_Just not in this place, _my inner said.

"Ita-kun," I whispered softly, touching his arm. He turned his intense gaze me, mangekyou still activated, though they weren't spinning. I gulped.

"I-I-I think th-that's enough now. You've gotten all the info from her?" I continued whispering, tentatively rubbing his arm.

He sighed, before deactivation his kekkei genkai. His now onyx eyes softened as he agreed, nodding slightly. Kita by then was out cold and I reached to her neck so that I could gently remove Itachi's fingers that were gripping it so tightly.

"I'll take her to the hospital and have her treated, then I'll go to Shishou and find out-"

"I will accompany you to the hospital, then we shall proceed to go Hokage-sama's office from there," he interrupted, voice back to normal. Before I could respond, he turned to Shisui and Ibiki. "Shisui, go and sleep. I command you, as your captain. Ibiki, please tidy up."

Before I could even blink, two masked ANBU appeared outta nowhere, took Kita and disappeared again. Itachi promptly followed, calmly and quickly doing his teleportation signs and disappearing in a pouf of leaves. I sighed, before forming my own sighs and heading to the hospital.

I got there and found everything ready for me. Three hours after a not-so-gruelling operation, I came out of there, satisfied with the fact that Kita will be able to stand trial for treason.

I walked into the lobby, looking for my fiancé so that we could proceed to the Hokage's office and give in our respective reports. It was still late morning, so if I could _convince _Itachi, we could pass by home and have a heavy breakfast due to the efforts of my...persuations.

A small, feminine smirk graced my lips as I thought how marvellous this morning had the potential to turn for the better. Itachi needed it anyway. His mood needed to be brightened up considerably.

I was still thinking my happy thoughts when I felt a vague pain on my ass. It was as if it had been slapped...

I turned around to see a young ANBU laughing his smug ass off. He had lifted his mask off his face, meaning he was off duty. I glared at him, because I _knew _that he was the one that did that.

"Didn't you ever learn manners when you were encrypted into ANBU?" I growled at him.

He just winked at me and smirked. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that. You just have such a sexy piece of-"

He was rudely interrupted when he bumped into something, or rather _someone. _I couldn't hide the smugness I felt at his impending doom.

He dropped his smirk, and turned around to see who had the utter gall to interrupt his unwanted leering.

I could practically see his face go white with utter terror as he watched Itachi's onyx eyes bleed into crimson.

"What the _fuck _are you doing to _my _fiancée?" he hissed dangerously, letting out quite a substantial amount of his killing intent.

I had to lean on the wall to keep my balance. My inner promptly flailed, fainted, came round, drooled, had an orgasm on the spot, then dissolved into a puddle of goo somewhere at the base of my brain. In that exact order.

Did Itachi have any idea what the hell he did to me when he lost his temper? Clearly he didn't, because if he did he honestly wouldn't be doing it so often.

This time, he actually _cursed_! Kami-sama, my reserves of self-control were getting seriously depleted at this rate.

"U-U-Uchiha t-t-taichou..." the guy whispered, too terrified to even generate thought. "I-I-I'm-"

Immediately, Itachi grabbed the guy by his neck and slammed him on the wall, the tomoe in his sharingan beginning to spin. No doubt the poor guy would be put in a genjutsu he wouldn't be forgetting in a while.

"If I _ever _as much as hear you even _glanced _in the direction of _my woman, _I will not hesitate to severely make you pay. Do I make myself clear?" he growled.

Jesus Christ! Now _I _would be the one doing the flailing, fainting, coming round, drooling, having an orgasm on the spot, before dissolving into a puddle of goo at Itachi's size 13 feet. He was _absolutely irresistible _whenever he got so possessive.

"Yes, sir," the kid breathed, clutching at Itachi's vice-like grip on his neck as he struggled to breathe. Itachi suddenly let go of the guy. He fell ass first to the ground, that look of terror still on his face. He gasped, before mumbling incoherently, shaking his head, then seeing that sharingan glare on him, curled up in utter terror.

"Get out of my sight," Itachi commanded coldly. The guy scrambled to his feet, before erring numerously on the signs of his teleportation jutsu. When he finally got it right, he was out of there in an instant.

"Let us proceed, Sakura," Itachi said, turning around and walking in his fast, quiet gait, leaving all the men behind him awe and the women sighing dreamily behind him as his ponytail swished behind his back.

"Y-yeah, sure," I said, happy that my voice was steady.

I wonder if that morning plan would still work...?


	22. Chapter 22

**I thought I had made this clear in a previous author's note. I am NOT here to write a fucking porno script, okay? Rocky 1980, or whatever the hell your name is, this is a warning to you. Get it in your head. If you've come to my**__**story to bitch to me about how my chapter is so short and how you were expecting Itachi and Sakura to have sex and goodness-knows-what-other-bullshit, get fucking lost. This is **_**my **_**story and I write it how the hell I want to. DO NOT come on here and give me terms and conditions on what **_**you**_** expect of my story, because quite frankly, I don't give a solitary fuck. If you don't like it, click the little red box with an x at the left hand corner of your screen. Alternatively, you can just go back and look for another story to dictate.**

**Another thing, if you aren't registered, get a fucking account already. I am not going to subject the rest of my readers writing these angered notes, destroying their mood for reading my story just because I cannot send you a message to give you a piece of my mind. I can't stand such childish behaviour. It's exceedingly **_**annoying.**_

**To the rest of you, my darling readers, I'm **_**extremely sorry**_** for this. As mentioned earlier, this immature brat has no account, and I had to warn her. None of you should be concerned with this. Again, I sincerely apologise. *bows***

**Onwards, then.**

**Mendoukusei 22.**

I was fidgety and nervous, and this was another of the times I thanked Itachi for the silent strength he lent to me.

The Uchiha and Hyuuga clan heads, along with the higher ranking shinobi, including ANBU Captains and jounin elite were all gathered in Tsunade Shishou's office. Jiraiya-sama and Neji's teams were back, and going by the sombre look on Jiraiya-sama's face and his lack of attention on Shishou's breasts told me that a war was brewing.

Hinata had come along with her father, and she immediately walked to my side. I held her hand and reassuringly squeezed. She sent a small a small, scared smile my way. We both knew we needed each other for this. She was one of the more powerful kunoichi in the village, and the only reason she hadn't joined ANBU yet was because her father was delaying her, wanting her to know her clan inside out before she did.

This was definitely _not _good.

"Itachi has a report to give us. He garnered information from Yamamoto Kita, the traitor of our village who almost gave Kumo one of our most powerful bloodline limits. I demand your utmost attention. Listen to what he has to say.

Shikamaru, for once, wasn't slouching and was alert as a hawk.

"Contrary to earlier belief, there is no alliance between Otogakure no Sato and Kumogakure no Sato to obliterate Konoha."

There was an extremely tense silence in the room for about fifteen seconds. Not a single sound could be heard, and the Hokage tower being sound proof did not help matters at all, heightening the tension.

Then Shishou reacted.

"_WHAT?" _she roared, slamming her palm flat on her desk, splitting it clean in two. Itachi, Fugaku otoo-san, Hiyashi-sama, Neji and Kakashi-sensei were the only ones that were otherwise unmoved. The rest of us were looking at the two parts of Shishou's desk in uneasy apprehension.

"There is no alliance between Oto and Kumo to obliterate us," Itachi repeated calmly. "What we have is a situation where Kumo attacked us first, and Oto took advantage of the situation to cause more havoc and confusion, wait for a moment of weakness and then strike."

The sake flask in Shishou's hand shattered. The sake flowed to the floor, together with a few drops of her blood.

"Explain," Shishou demanded in a clipped tone.

"Yamamoto Kita had strict orders to kill a certain Hyuuga clansman from a woman called Sayoko, an apparently high ranking woman in the Raikage's circles. She was to bring the Hyuuga's eyes to Kumo, where she would officially become a member of said village and give as much information as possible on Konoha and its elite shinobi in the village at the moment. She was also to steal medical records on Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata so that they could figure out the secrets behind the Byakugan, since an earlier attempt to do so failed. I do not know what they intended to do with the eyes after this, since she was not informed. What she _was _informed of, however, was the suspicion that Oto was, indeed, up to something, for a few weeks before she was approached by Kumo, Orochimaru had approached the Raikage to form an alliance, but the Raikage refused."

By the time he finished his report, we were all staring at him as if he had lost it.

"What about Iwa?" Jiraya-sama asked, seemingly the first to recover.

"There is absolutely no information of Iwagakure no Sato's intentions." Itachi replied.

Shishou's killing intent was leaking out. Sub-conciously, I backed away. For someone with such perfect chakra control to have it leaking out in waves of rage like that showed just how dire this situation was.

"Explain further, _Uchiha," _she seethed, her arms trembling.

I gulped.

Itachi, however, kept his calm.

"There is a war brewing, Hokage-sama. Kumo and Oto are on a mission to get what they have always wanted from us. They are not going to stop until they get the Byakugan and Sharingan, even if they will have to cause a ninja war. _They will not stop._"

Suddenly, Shishou sat. She looked up at us, and the hurt look in her eyes was enough to shatter my heart. The only other time I ever saw her like this was when Madara attacked the village.

"I'm going to declare war but I cannot do it unless I have your support," she started strongly, before suddenly just breaking down. Jiraiya-sama caught her.

" I'm just...I-I don't know...I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like...like, I..it's...Sarutobi-sensei...I-"

"What the _fuck _is wrong with you baa-chan?" Naruto exploded, very suddenly outta nowhere. "Are you bloody dense? What the hell are you saying? What do you mean 'unless you have our support'? Has senility finally reached your brain?" he yelled, no doubt for the whole of Konoha along with half of Fire Country to hear.

Thank _Kami _the building was sound proof.

All Shishou could do was blankly stare at him. For once in her life, she couldn't find it in her to come up with an insult.

"We are your shinobi, baa-chan. The Uchiha might just be a collection of stuck-up nobles, the Hyuuga stuck-up noble wanna-bes, the Aburame weirdo freaks, the Yamanaka annoying, nosy, overbearing rumour mongers, the Inuzuka foul smelling excuses of humans and the Nara lazy-ass forest planters, but we are _your _shinobi. We were with you when Uchiha Madara attacked us, and we did everything within our power to protect the village. Our pride. _Your _pride. We will always be with you, fight for you, with you, alongside you. We are a team, baa-chan. The shinobi and the Hokage are in a symbiotic relationship. We need each other to survive. _We need each other to succeed. _We proved it when Madara and those Akatsuki retards came to attack us. We proved it to the _whole motherfucking world. _Yes, they may be able to kill individual shinobi, individual teams, individual Hokage, but they were _never, ever _able to defeat us when we worked together, Hokage _and _shinobi. You never need to ask. All you need to do is give the order, and we will be with you 100%. This is a war against us, and no bloody leader or whatever is gonna tell us how we run our shit. Anyone who objects to any of this can bring themselves forward so I can shove a rasengan up their sorry asses. Tell us what to do, Tsunade no baa-chan, and _we will do it. DATTEBAYO!" _he jumped, pumping his fist up in the air.

The reaction in Tsunade Shishou's office ranged from incredulity, to shock, to tears to all out amusement.

"I-Naruto..."

Shihsou blinked, and the tears flowed from her eyes. She suddenly stood up, walked toward Naruto and promptly glomped him, almost suffocating him in her huge bosom.

"No fair. I've known her most her life and she's never hugged me so close to those delectable melons before," Jiraiya-sama grumbled, before going into a sulk.

"Lucky bastard," Gemna muttered, as Shisui nodded his agreement.

Shizune, Ino and myself proceeded to smack all three perverts upside their heads.

"Wow, Naruto. For once you've spoken sense, though I must say we Nara are not lazy. We simply prefer not to involve ourselves in tedious exercises. It's very troublesome," Shikaku-san said, yawning in the exact same manner Shikamaru would.

I raised an eyebrow, strongly begging to differ. Naruto is right. Nara should be the synonym for lazy asses.

Shishou immediately got serious, and everyone else sobered up in her office.

"You heard the brat. Mobilise for war. I'll send a warning to Oto and Kumo declaring war, and I'll also send a request for help from Suna and Kiri."

She moved back behind her desk, or rather the two pieces of her desk.

"Uchiha, Hatake, Hyuuga, organise all shinobi in fighting condition and bring them to the Hokgae tower, and I mean _each and every single one of them, _chuunin, up till ANBU. Sakura, Shizune, you do the medical corps, Sakura field and Shizune Hospital. Uchiha," she turned to Shisui. "Organise your forces: those that will protect all the clan councils and the Konoha council, those that will protect the village, and those that are gonna fight. Nara, both of you, think of some serious strategies. Jiraiya and I will be overseeing stuff. Clan leaders, it's your duty to break the news to Konoha. We are at war here." She crossed her arms around her huge breast, making Jiraiya-sama's eyes follow their movement.

" Those retards want a war, they are gonna get one," She growled. "Everyone, move!" she ordered.

"What if Iwagakure do declare war on us?" Itachi asked smoothly, before everyone bolted or finished making the seals to their respective teleportation jutsu.

Shishou smirked deviously, an act that caused Jiraiya-sama to nosebleed. "We have the Yondaime Hokage's son on our side, don't we? He might be an idiot, but we all know he _is _going to annihilate them on the field," she replied, just as smoothly.

They both turned to look at Naruto, who's blue eyes had widened considerably in confusion.

"Three, two, one..." Kakashi-sensei was muttering under his death.

"Nandayo? Why are you guys looking at me like that?" he asked. Then his eyes suddenly brightened, and he got that utterly idiotic grin on his face that just said he was about to say something extremely stupid.

"Ne, ne, baa-chan, can we all have free ramen before we go to war?" he asked excitedly.

I facepalmed, as Sasuke-kun dutifully smacked him upside the head. Talk about ruining the moment.

"Ow," he yelped loudly, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at Sasuke-kun. "Oi, temee, what's the big deal?"

"You really are a dobe, dobe," he muttered, to everyone's agreement.

Jiraiya-sama looked up to the heavens. "What did Minato do to the fates to deserve such an idiotic offspring?" he asked, shaking his head.

Tsunade Shishou looked at him. "Takes one to know one, Jiraiya," she snapped, before glaring at everyone, who took that as a sign to get lost.

For about the first couple of hours, the whole village was in chaos. It was expected, seeing as Shishou had just suddenly declared war on Kumo and Oto, and very probably, Iwa. The situation, however went back in order after the ANBU Captains reassured everyone that everything was going to be alright and nobody would get hurt or anything like that.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Jiraiya-sama and Shishou summoned Katsuyu-sama and Gamabunta respectively to check out how everyone was doing, and they seemed satisfied that it was all going fine.

"Finally done, aren't we?" I asked Shizune nee-chan, and she nodded, tired but satisfied at the work and effort we put.

"It's just sad that Kita isn't around anymore. Her rpesenc is kinda missed. D'you know what's gonna happen to her?" she asked, making the mood even more sombre.

I shrugged, my shoulders heavy when I was done. "I donno. She'll probably be convicted and then executed, I guess. It's really sad coz she was such a talented medic," I replied softly.

I then took my leave and teleported myself to the Hokage Mountain. I needed some time alone to think.

We were in a war at the moment. Any moment from next week we would be attacked, probably even sooner if Orochimaru was really as desperate as Itachi speculated. Suna and Kiri had no obligation to be dragged in it, but they no doubt will, Gaara-san coz of Naruto and Mizukage-sama coz of Shishou. Iwa would just join coz they are Konoha's sworn enemies.

What did the major shinobi clans have to say about this?

I suddenly felt powerful, muscular arms wrap around me, and I gasped slightly when I felt Itachi's open mouth place kisses on my neck.

"What troubles you so, my queen?" he asked quietly, his voice dropped an octave lower and his hands exploring, going places where they shouldn't _in public._

My body functions had refused to work. Good Kami the things Itachi could do with his mouth and his hands. I was finding it increasingly hard to think and breath, and before I could will my rapidly hyperventilating brain to form a semblance of a thought, I felt his hard erection on my ass.

I gulped, as he smirked on my neck and promptly pulled me further towards his god-like body. I swear he had not even a kilogram of fat on him, just gorgeous, wonderfully defined muscle.

"Sleep with me," he whispered in my ear, sounding so seductive and perverse at the same time.

I had to do something about that Uchiha charm of his, because there was no way in the deepest, darkest pits of _hell_ I'd deny him _anything _if he spoke to me like that.

"Okay," I managed to breathe, before feeling his chakra whoosh around me as he teleported us to...I had no idea where he was intending to take me.

It was promising to be a thoroughly enjoyable evening.


	23. Chapter 23

**I love you guys. Have I ever told you I love you guys? You guys are awesome.**

**Thank you, thank you, thank you for the reviews, encouragement, understanding, fangirling, etc etc. I really appreciate it. Just so you know, Rocky did apologise, and because I was so touched and weeping in sheer joy at your reviews (while writing case notes for land law) I decided to forgive her. :D**

**Yes, now, because you guys are just too awesome for the interwebs to handle, I'm gonna reward ya'll with a lemon. This is for all the perverts (which is everyone) to read and enjoy to the maximum and get your usual dose of frigid showers after.**

**Don't nosebleed too much. ;D**

**Enjoy, my lovelies. :D**

**Mendoukusei 23.**

Sakura suspected that she would have no ability to walk for the next few days, if her lover's intentions were anything to go by.

She swallowed her fears and looked at Itachi's face, and with a slight gasp and gulp, she did, indeed, confirm that she would _absolutely not _have the capacity to walk for the next few days. This was not good, with a war coming and all.

Itachi was going to absolutely _devour _her, and she was not complaining in the least. Dammit. She should have listened to her inner all along. Damn her denial. Damn it to freaking hell.

Tsunade Shishou was going to kill her if she found out she was busy "being fruitful and multiplying before her time" as Hana would so snidely say instead of checking on medical supplies for the war that was about to begin anywhere within the next six to forty eight hours.

She looked up at Itachi's eyes again, what she saw made her mouth go dry. He was staring right at her, that predatory smirk on his handsome face, his raven hair undone, flowing over his shoulders, and _where the hell had his shirt gone?_

Her gaze dropped to his abs, and this time she didn't know who was losing it faster, her or her inner. Smooth, pale skin covered rippling muscles, very visible every time he shifted above her. Good Kami-sama, this man's utter sex appeal was going to be the end of her.

Slowly, her eyes moved up his god-like body, and when she got into eye contact with him again, she swore her heartbeat stopped for a few moments.

His eyes slowly turned from a very darkened onyx to a very maroon shade, his pupil splitting into the three tomoe that were characteristic of the sharingan. This she was used to seeing, seeing as Sasuke was her teammate. What stole her breath away and increased the desire she was already feeling pool in her lower stomach was the slow, deliberate way he did it. He only did that in battle or when training, and he used it as an intimidating tactic, particularly to Shisui and Sasuke. The fact that he could control how scarlet bled into onyx only further proved his complete mastery and control of his kekkei genkai, and the fact that he was doing it now when she was watching only proved to her how much he'd enjoy pounding her right through the floor.

Itachi used his actions to speak rather than his words, particularly during sex (she should know) and faster than her eye could follow, he descended onto her mouth, totally devouring it.

Sakura's brain turned to mush, but she still had enough sense to go on with what she'd been planning for quite a while. Itachi always dominated, and she always voluntarily relinquished control to him. This time, however, _she _wanted to dominate. She knew Itachi, being the possessive, domineering alpha-male that he is would strongly rebel, mostly due to the fact that Uchiha ego of his would not let him, she decided when it came down to it, she'd use her strength on him.

She was brought back to the present by Itachi's hips grinding hard into hers, as he took her lower lip into his mouth and bit hard, before suckling on it to sooth the pain.

Okay, maybe it had come down to it to use her strength on him.

Her chakra control was perfect, and unlike most other shinobi, she could send it whenever she wanted without having to think about it. She concentrated chakra to her arms and legs and flipped them around, so that she was the one on top.

Itachi suddenly felt his back on the comfortable mattress of the bed they were in, his breath knocked out from his lungs in a long whoosh, and his little lover straddling his waist, smiling like the Cheshire cat. He knew she had used her strength to flip them over, and he was not complaining in the least. Knowing her independent nature, he understood by that move that she wanted to doinate the sex this time, and he would allow it, but only for a little while. He was Uchiha Itachi after all, and _nobody _dominated Uchiha Itachi.

Sakura, however, immediately descended on his neck and begun suckling hard. His throat blocked preventing no sound but a small gasp to come out. He wondered who the hell taught her how to kiss like that, before he closed his eyes and just _enjoyed _what she was doing to him. She placed numerous hot, open mouthed kisses from the corner of his mouth, across his jaw, down his neck and onto his shoulder-his sensitive spot.

_How _his shoulder was so sensitive to her touch, he had no idea.

Slowly, she concentrated on his shoulder, kissing, licking and occasionally biting. He only just gasped and very occasionally grunted, communicating his pleasure at what she was doing to him. He was, after all, extremely quiet in all that he did, and sex was no exception.

Her mouth left his shoulder, and he growled to show his disapproval. Sakura ignored it and lifted herself off his form anyway, smirking at the very red, very visible mark she'd left on his shoulder. He was hers, and nobody else's. That mark on his shoulder was proof of that.

"Sakura," he growled, sharingan gaze trained on her green eyes. She smirked back.

"Imaptient, aren't you my darling," she said, her voice low and sultry. He gulped, the first time he did so since he was six. The way she said that statement was not helping his train of thought and hormones at all, since he was thinking of telling her what exactly he wanted her to do to him, not to mention his pants were getting uncomfortably tight, because his cock was hardening every second.

Slowly, deliberately driving him to the brink of insanity, she kissed her way down. Slowly, she descended. She kissed his chest, making sure to take each of his nipples into her mouth and suckle on them, before slowly moving onto those washboard abs of his that she loved so much. With every kiss, she felt his muscles ripple through his skin from under her tongue, and she knew for a fact that he enjoyed every single second of it.

She traced her finger along that trail of hairs that started from his navel and went down into his pants. She undid his pants, and when the zip refused to open when she tugged at it, she literally ripped the damn trousers off.

Itachi, on the other hand, was past caring now. All that was going on in his pleasure addled mind was what his little lover was doing to him. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he heard her rip his trousers, and he knew she was blatantly staring at his erection, struggling to spring out of his boxers. He felt her gently rip his boxers off, before he felt warm moisture on the tip of his cock.

At first, he was so out of it, he really could not tell what was going on, then he felt her lips close over his cock, _his whole cock _and her tongue run over its length.

She was giving him a blowjob.

"Oh, _fuck _yeah," he growled, curling his long, slender fingers into her hair and guiding her mouth over his erection. At first, she slowly moved her head up and down, lightly grazing her teeth as she moved up because she knew he just _loved _it when she did that. She eventually increased her speed, bobbing her head up and down his cock, and saw him clench his teeth is sheer pleasure, his hand that wasn't in her hair clutching at the sheets below them tightly. He opened up his eyes and their gazes met. She smirked at him, his cock still in her mouth, before she moved her tongue up and around his tip, the most sensitive part of him, knowing very well that it would bring him to orgasm much faster.

"Shit, I-my queen, I can't...I can't...goddammit...I'm going to...oh _fuck," _he growled, before giving in to his orgasm. He came so hard in her mouth that Sakura was almost chocking on his seed. He released so much of himself into her that some of it spilled from the sides of her lips.

She also found it very amusing how he could curse worse than Naruto and still sound so formal.

Before she could gloat, she found herself on the bed, Itachi hovering above her. She gulped. She was in for it.

Itachi was not feeling very patient at the moment. He simply plunged his lips on her mouth, devouring it in the process. He smirked when he felt her gasp in his mouth, and took her tongue into his mouth. He could taste himself on her tongue, and this only made his kiss her all the more harder.

He moved his mouth down the slender column of her throat, leaving a trail of red marks, before suckling on her junction of her neck and shoulder. His hands explored her body as he deliberately took his time stripping her. The moment her bra went off, he captured her nipple into her mouth, causing her to scream his name at the sudden pleasure.

Unlike Itachi, Sakura was very...vocal whenever she expressed her pleasure. She knew he absolutely loved, and that it turned him on even more whenever she informed half the village that Itachi was making love to her, but she just could not help it. She was quite loud, another of the many traits she inherited from her shishou.

He moved his mouth to her other breast, watching her chest heave, as his hands moved lower down her body. His fingers reached that mass of curls, and when he felt just how wet she already was for him he left her breast and immediately descended. He knew he was letting his impatience get the better of him, but he wanted her and he wanted her _now._

Sakura felt him kiss his way down. He kissed her stomach, slowly leaving a trail until he got to the mass of curls that covered her core. As she was still recovering from his kisses and touches, she felt him plunge his tongue into her, and the explosive pleasure that jolted through her body caused her back to form a perfect arc, which lifted her off the bed.

Itachi did not stop. He went on, exploring her with his tongue, as his thumb came into contact with her clit. He rubbed slowly, until he felt her thighs begin to quiver, and he knew that her orgasm was near. When he knew she was about to let loose, he pushed his tongue as far as it would go and simultaneously pushed her clit with his tongue, causing her release a blood curding scream, which he was sure the whole village heard as she went through a shattering orgasm.

He lifted himself up, and hovered over her once more. _He was still not yet done. _Sakura lifted an eyebrow incredulously. After all that, he still wanted more? He really was an insufferable pervert, a secret she was more than happy to keep.

She had realised, through the course of her relationship, that Uchiha taichou and Itachi were two very different people. Uchiha taichou was the shinobi; the cool, calm, collected ANBU captain, who was feared by many, respected by even more and no doubt one of the most brilliant and powerful shinobi of his time. He was the unemotional and indifferent warrior that everyone else saw.

Itachi, on the other hand, was the extremely perverted mama's boy who loved those close to him dearly and would give his life for their protection. He was also a master of sex, and couldn't get enough of it, a very dominant trait in all Uchiha men, apparently. Maybe they all had some kind of inherited sex addiction going on.

At the moment, she was dealing with Itachi, her favourite of the two.

"You are insatiable, Ita-kun," she breathed, as she watched him position himself between her legs. He dipped his head to her neck, running his tonge up her neck before whispering in her ear.

"That is how you love me, my queen," his voice was rough and deep, and before she could even form a retort, he had already pushed himself into her, causing her to sigh blissfully.

By this time, they were so in sync with each other's bodies, that they almost immediately formed a rhythm. Him mercilessly plunging into her, and she raising her hips whenever necessary. As they were both reaching their peaks, Sakura's shrieks only got louder, and Itachi's breaths only came out faster. With a loud scream, Sakura was the first to reach orgasm, her second of the night, before Itachi followed soon after, when he felt her walls tighten around his cock, a feeling he had come to totally enjoy. He gasped, before letting his seed spill into the very depths of her womb, and pulled himself out of her. He lay on her side, pulling her smaller form closer to himself. He heard footsteps coming towards the door, and smirked.

Sakura stirred in his arms. "Ita-kun, I think someone's coming," she said trying to sound serious, despite the pain between her legs.

"I know," he said. She absolutely did not like the smirk on his face.

"What the hell...Oh Jesus Christ! Really? _At this time?_"

Sakura wanted the ground to open up and swallow her, but since that was impossible, she settled for squeezing herself as close to her lover as physically possible.

Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Naruto were standing at the door, looking right at them. Their facial expressions ranged from anger, incredulity, indifference, and shock respectively.

"I must applaud you for taste, Itachi, but I do agree with Tsunade. This is quite an inappropriate time to engage in...such...activities," Jiraiya said, the incredulity very evident in his voice.

Kakashi only just shook his head, and mumbled something that sounded very suspiciously like young virility under his breath.

"Ne, I think you guys are forgetting a very important fact," Naruto said, looking around.

Everyone suddenly looked at him, and he went slightly green when he saw Itachi's smug smirk. For once, he was able to connect everything without having it yelled at him. He also knew Itachi did this on purpose.

"This is Sasuke's room."

The silence that greeted the room was deafening at this statement.

"WHAAAAAT? I'VE HAD SEX IN SASUKE-KUN'S ROOM?" Sakura shrieked.

Sasuke was going to shit kittens _and _toads.

**Sooooo sorry I've taken so long. School work is a bitch, and my lecturers just aren't stoping. Assignment after assignment, and I'm doing a pretty demanding course, which is gonna be the end of me. Right now, I'm supposed to be doing research to start on a 2000 word essay instead of posting fanfiction. It just sucks, I tell you.**

**_Randomness: _So I was listening to Toumei Datta by Motohiro Hata which is the opening song for the shippudden arc where Pein obliterates Konoha. I really love that song coz it reminds me of Jiraiya. He had his annoying moments but I think he was one of the more formidable shinobi. I particularly broke down at the part where he died, and Naruto had to be told. His reaction broke my heart. I bawled my eyes out.**

***sniff***

**The last part was due to seven cans of red bull, four tequillas and half a bottle of Smirnoff vodka blue in six hours. You have to admit, it was awesome.**

**Sex in Sasuke's room...*giggles*  
**


	24. Chapter 24

**Mendoukusei 24.**

We, consisting of Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, myself and Sasuke-kun were standing in a meadow somewhere in the Uchiha compound.

"Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu!"

Again, all four of us watched as Sasuke-kun burned his futon, his beddings, and, in his words, 'everything within a three kilometre radius of his defiled sanctuary'.

Which, in normal human language is everything in his room.

He then spun on his heel and turned to me, face wiped clean of all emotion, sharingan activated and the outer edges of his eyes creased.

I sighed.

"_WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING _FUCKING _MY _BROTHER _IN _MY _ROOM?" _he bellowed, causing the rest of us to immediately cover our ears, and everyone else in the district as well.

I sighed again. I loved Sasuke-kun, as a teammate, a brother-in-law to-be, and as a friend, but his hard-headedness tended to make one question his genius.

"We have already been through this, Sasuke-kun, before you obliterated training ground two, sulked for four hours, whined some more and just now destroyed everything in your room," I started, sounding calmer than I felt."Your brother teleported me to your room and...erm...yeah. I didn't know. I swear," I continued, hoping to whichever deity was listening that he'd believe me.

"Why? Because you were too busy sucking his dick to look where you were pounding each other into?" he asked rudely, crossing his arms across his chest and _pouting._

A pouting Uchiha was never good for anyone's nerves and blood pressure.

Except, maybe, another Uchiha.

I'm sure my face was redder than Hinata's ever has been whenever Naruto spoke with her.

"Look, Sasuke-kun, I'm sorry. You can crash at my place and I promise I'll make Itachi apologise later. It won't happen again. I know he did it to spite you, and I should have been more observant of my surroundings," I tried again, looking at him as I pulled my most innocent puppy dog face.

The creases around his eyes smoothened, and I knew I had calmed the beast. "I'm still gonna tell kaa-chan. The least aniki can do is buy me new furniture," he grumbled. "He gets around five times more than me, coz of some fucking clan allowance. Bastard," he went on grumbling.

Naruto rolled his eyes and Kakashi-sensei just sighed. Sasuke-kun could be such a big baby.

"Good," I said, going back to my normal self. "Now, let's get back to Shishou, before she blows a gasket."

As we were on our merry way, I felt sorry for Sasuke-kun. In all honesty, I have no idea what the hell was going on in Itachi's mind when he decided to make love to me in his otouto's room. Nobody was ever really sure what was going on in that brilliant-twisted-sick mind of his, though he always did what he did with purpose, no matter how retarded.

This time, he was probably reminding his otouto that I was _his_, and absolutely _nothing _was going to change that fact, no matter how strong a genjutsu he put around our training area whenever we trained. (Itachi had developed a very nasty habit of deliberately interrupting some of my training sessions with my boys to make out, have sex, or anything else along those lines. I wasn't complaining in the least, but the few times he did it aggravated Naruto and Sasuke-kun to no end, hence the genjutsu around us.)

I knew that at the back of their minds, my boys knew this, and only Kakashi-sensei accepted it. He was, after all, the same kind of possessive, dominating alpha-male, if Anko's vivid details in the women's baths are anything to go by. The other two are just idiots.

For once, I sided with Kakashi-sensei and Naruto. Itachi never really was sane.

Sanity, however, is overrated, so I'll cut him some slack.

"Well, well, well...what have we here?" I heard a very familiar flirty baritone ask. I rolled my eyes.

"Sod off Genma. Go perv some place else," I muttered going walking past him, because going by the look on his face I knew that he knew what had happened.

"A little birdie tells me that your fiancé had you in his otouto's room last night. I wonder what message he was trying to get across, hmm? Naruto? You have an idea?" he asked, smirking at us.

Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Gemna, this is really not the time," he drawled.

Naruto, on the other hand was still trying to process what Genma-perv was going on about it. He had that characteristic frown on his face, where his eyes are closed and he's crossed his arms on his chest.

I really wonder how much sake he bribed Tsunade Shishou with to get into ANBU.

Giving Gemna a hard glare, I shoved my boys ahead of me so we could get out of there faster. I really wasn't in the mood of dealing with either him or Shisui, and though I did have the capacity to fling them from Konoha to Kiri, my chakra would be put to much better use healing my fellow shinobi.

"How the hell did you grow up with these guys Haruno? The only reason I haven't had my dogs rip them to smithereens is coz Kakashi-taichou would raikiri me into next week," Hana stated, as she and her canine companions teleported right in front of us. I sighed, understanding exactly how she felt.

"You kinda get used to it, after a while," I said.

"You've still got a little limp going on. I told my baby cousin to be careful with you. You're one of the best medics we have _Sakura-chan. _We cannot afford to have you limping around when you're supposed to be healing us," Shisui suddenly flickered in front of us and was speaking in his annoying sing-song voice, sharingan gleaming.

They were, very obviously not going to let this go. Was I doomed to have morons for teammates for the rest of my life?

Before I could think of a nice threat to deliver to my ANBU teammates, a Black Orps operative suddenly appeared. All conversation halted, and we waited to hear what this shinobi had to say.

"Hatake Kakashi-taichou, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Hana, Uchiha Shisui, Shiranui Gemna and Haruno Sakura, you are all required in the Godaime Hokage's office with immediate urgency to witness upon and report the trial and eventual execution of Yamamoto Kita before the Uchiha Clan Council, the Hyuuga Clan Council and the Konohagakure no Sato Village Council." He immediately disappeared with a pouf of smoke.

No one delayed. Immediately the ANBU disappeared we followed closely behind, everyone making their respective teleportation signs straight to the Hokage tower.

"Finally. Took you long enough," I heard Shishou grumble the moment the cherry blossoms surrounding my jutsu wore off. Standing on either sides of her were Shizune nee-chan and Jiraiya-sama. Both had serious looks on their faces, and judging by Naruto's immediate frown when he saw the looks on his shishou's face, I immediately knew shit was going down.

Neji and Shikamaru, together with their respective teams were also in the office. Itachi, looking as sexy as ever, was leaning behind Shishou, between two windows, the sole of one foot placed flat on the wall while his other foot was on the floor. His eyes only slightly gleamed, meaning he was just about to activate his kekkei genkai.

Hinata, standing slightly to Shizune nee-chan's side, was also present.

Shishou's hands folded under her chin only seemed to consolidate the fact that shit was, indeed, going down.

"I have summoned you here to witness this trial and execution. This is very secretive, and you, as my elite shinobi are the only ones who know about it. Each and every single one of you will then write a report to the Uchiha and Hyuuga Clan councils, through their respective clan heirs, Uchiha Itachi and Hyuuga Hinata respectively, will they receive these reports."

She stood up, followed by Jiraiya-sama, Shizune nee-chan, Itachi the Hinata. The rest of us walked slowly behind all of them, the mood dark and sombre. On top expecting a war at any time, we were witnessing an execution of someone, a very talented medic willingly betray the village to our sworn enemies.

Shishou led us as we walked through the leafy forest that surrounded our village. We seemed to be walking for kilometres, before I realised that we were just outside the outskirts of the villages. There we saw Morino Ibiki and Yamamoto Kita, who was standing in front of a tree branch, extremely frightened. Her arms and legs were bound by chakra strings and she was trembling slightly. Her eyes were very red and puffy from crying, and I had to hand it to her. She was looking very calm and dignified, despite her slight trembles and occasional sniffles.

"Yamamoto Kita," Jiraiya-sama begun, his voice serious. "You have hereby been accused of treason to the village of Konohagakure no Sato, attempted murder and illegal espionage. You were under the paid authority under the Sandaime Raikage of Kumogakure no Sato, a sworn enemy of Konoha to murder a member of the Hyuuga clan, holders of the Byakugan, one of the most powerful bloodline limits in the ninja world and subsequently take the eyes to Kumo, before being made a member of the village aforementioned. The evidence presented before the Godaime Hokage and her advisors proves this to be true, and you are now sentenced to death by beheading."

Jiraiya-sama moved back, as Neji smoothly unsheathed his katana and put his mask on. I guess Shishou decided he should do the beheading since he was the highest ranked active shinobi of the Hyuuga clan.

Just as Neji was about to slice Kita's head off, a smoke bomb went off in his face. "Aaaargh," he shouted as the whole area was covered in a thick cloud of grey smoke.

"What the fuck...? Has the war started? What the bloody hell is going on?" Shihsou started, the rage purely showing in her voice.

"Fucking hell," Shisui cursed, a very, _very _rare occurrence. That meant he could not see a thing, even with his sharingan activated. I could not help but gulp, because Shisui was one of the most talented Uchiha when it came to using his sharingan.

"Uchiha," Shishou roared. "Activate your mangekyou and tell me _what the fuck is going on."_

"Dammit," I heard Itachi mutter from somewhere. Sheer terror froze me on the spot. This was very, very bad.

"What's the matter, aniki?" I heard Sasuke-kun growl from somewhere, clearly irritated.

"I cannot see a thing. The smoke is too thick," Itachi replied, uncharacteristically losing his temper. This war had caused a lot of stress on all of us, and this was obviously _not _the time to deal with unwanted ambushes. No one was in the mood.

"Even with your mangekyou on? You know you're the only one that can do it, aniki. If you don't-"

"_Shut up, _Sasuke," Itachi snapped, his temper coming through. It was eerily quiet after that.. Itachi never addressed his otouto by his name, unless he was about to beat him to a duck-butt haired pulp.

It took a few more moments for the smoke to clear up, before everyone instinctually turned to the tree where Kita was tied up.

I turned to look at Shishou and saw the chakra rapidly collecting in her fist. Jiraiya-sama looked very ready to leap, and was eyeing her fist with wary apprehension.

"_GODDAMMIT!_" she screamed, punching the ground, making all of us leap into the air for safety. The ground broke apart, rocks and trees falling around everywhere. If my vision was correct, she had obliterated a three mile radius of rock, soil and forest.

It turned out to be about five, when the smoke cleared.

Now I understood why she was one of the most feared kage. She could very easily obliterate five miles of surface.

"Teams Uchiha and Hatake," she snapped, looking up at us when she lifted her fist from the ground. A small crater had formed where her fist was. One day, one day, I would be able to cause the same amount of destruction.

"I want you to track that bitch down and rip the motherfuckers apart that took her. I don't care how you do it. Just fucking do it. You have two weeks, and I mean it. _Two fucking weeks, _you got that? This goes to you, Hatake. There is _absolutely no room for failure._ Do I make myself clear?" she hissed, shaking slightly in rage.

Itachi's face slowly curved into a reckless smirk, and Kakashi-sensei followed suit. It took a lot of self control not to swoon and/or jump his bones.

"Of course, Hokage sama," they said in unison, executing the most graceful bows.

Shishou turned, and threw three scrolls to each captain. Those are medical supplies and your food. They will last you about two weeks. Use them wisely. Now scram already. I have a bloody war to supervise."

We were out of there before she turned around again.

As we were sprinting through the forest, I sighed for the umpteenth time. Random missions in the middle of an apparent war?

Mendoukusei, ne?

**Oh my God, you guys...I'm sooo lame, but you still love me. First of all, university is going to kill me, if alcohol doesn't first. Second of all, I'm suffering from such a massive case of writer's block, it's not even funny. I've chalked it up to university. Third of all, I'm (re)watching **_**The Tudors, **_**and quite frankly, I'd forgotten how utterly sexy Jonathan Rhys Meyers is. He reminds me of Itachi. Both of them are so deliciously sexy, I cannot help but have inappropriate thoughts. I've decided that when I graduate (in two fucking years, mind you. *sigh* I curse the bastard(s) that invented uni) I'm going to go to Cork, Ireland and become his lawyer *ahem*.**

**No, I'm, **_**not **_**stalking him, I'm simply planning for my future, which may/may not include having very many of his (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) bi-racial babies. *AHEM***

**Ja na.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Now, I've got some guys telling me that Itachi is a tiny bit OOC. I'm very much aware of this and I understand what you're tryna say, but you have to understand that Itachi is one of the hardest characters to write because of his ridiculous self-control and indifferent nature. It's not really easy to decipher his exact thought patterns, making it very hard to write him based on how he thinks, since we **_**don't know how he thinks. **_**I've never read a story where Itachi is **_**exactly **_**the same as cannon, because, well, it's just impossible to write him exactly the same as cannon. He's an enigma. *This is where Itaweasel-hime nods her head in understanding*.**

**Another thing, Itachi is very much a **_**man. **_**No matter how strong his self control is, he is still susceptible to fall for a woman, i.e. Sakura, and he is bound to act differently from when he's a lover and when he's a shinobi.**

**Hope that clears up any misconceptions. Onwards, then.**

**Mendoukesei 25.**

This was borderline insanity.

Yes, I was _not _in a good mood, and Naruto grumbling on about lazy kage-level shinobi was not helping matters in the least.

"Where the hell are we going anyways, dattebayo?" he yelled, obnoxiously loudly.

"Shut up, dobe. We're going to Oto," Saskuke-kun ground out through gritted teeth. Naruto had absolutely no concept of subtlety. Either that, or his obtuseness had just gotten worse throughout the years, something very many people thought an impossibility.

Clearly, fate was joking around with us again. As usual.

God, my life sucks.

There was an abrupt silence, before Naruto spoke. "Why?"

"Because that's where the traitorous medic is," Kakashi-sensei replied.

"How d'you know that, Kakashi-sensei?"

"He is a genius, Naruto-kun, whereas you're a knuckle-headed brat. His intellect gives him the capacity to understand such simple concepts as to why Orochimaru and Otogakure no Sato would want to kindnap Yamamoto Kita." Itachi said smoothly, a devious smirk forming on his sinful lips.

**Tell me you don't wanna tie him on that oak tree he just landed on and ride his cock until he can't walk for a month, **my inner said, suddenly bursting forth in my consciousness when she saw that smirk.

_Tell me I shouldn't beat you to a pink pulp before packing you in a box and putting you in Naruto's brain,_ I growled back, not in the mood of having to deal with her inappropriate thoughts at the moment.

My inner promptly snorted. **Does he even have a brain?**

Come to think about it, _Good point. _I agreed, for once in a very long time.

"Ne, ne, Itachi Taichou, what d'you mean? I don't get it," Naruto said, face scrunched up in serious thought.

That statement seemed to solidify what my inner just said. Yep, definitely gotten more obtuse over the years.

"You know, Naruto," I begun, in that sweet voice that informed my boys how close I was to beating them up to a wrangled corpse.

"No I don't, Sakura chan. I'm just an idiot that should shut the hell up and wait for instructions from Kakashi-sensei and Itachi-taichou on what to do and when then follow them because that's what awesome ANBU operatives like you do." He rattled on, at a speed that would have made the Uchiha clan proud.

"Ah, I see you are developing a semblance of self preservation now. It seems my beatings have started having the desired effect. I am proud of you," I replied, smiling sweetly at him.

Every other male in the teams except Itachi gulped. I could even see sweat at the sides of their faces. Hana chuckled and came over to give me a high five.

It was very amusing seeing ANBU teams Hatake and Uchiha, revered to be the two most powerful ANBU teams in Konoha's history, and arguably Fire Country's as well, reduced to utterly terrified, trembling and scared little boys.

"How d'you do that? These guys have been in the bingo books since they were chuunin. Everyone is utterly terrified of them, and Iwa shinobi have the 'flee on sight' order against them, yet to manage to reduce them to shaking genins. It's just so awesome." Hana said, still chuckling at the shudders going through Sasuke-kun and Genma.

I smiled good naturedly.

"Even Kakashi-taichou is scared of you. The renown Copy nin is utterly terrified of his five foot three, pink haired student. You're just legendary."

"Hmm," I mused, innocently putting my finger on my chin. "It helps that the Godaime Hokage was my mentor and they know _first-hand_ that if I so chose to do so, I could flatten the Hokage tower with my fists, don't you gentlemen?" I turned to them and again all of them, with the exception of Itachi nodded vigorously, an act that left Hana in a fit of giggles.

"Fuck," Sasuke-kun suddenly muttered from out of nowhere. Before he could continue, I was already on him, running my chakra on his body looking for something wrong.

Sasuke-kun was one of the more formidable shinobi. He was one of the most stubborn males I'd ever had the misfortune (or fortune, depending on how you looked at it) to meet, and it did wonders for his (questionable) mental stability. His stubborn nature is what made him exceptionally resilient and have ridiculously high pain tolerance levels.

This is what made gasp in shock when I realised just how _unstable _his chakra levels were.

"Your chakra levels are very unstable," I said slowly. I removed my hands from his body. "Tell me where you learnt to summon Manda, Sasuke-kun," I went on.

He looked up at me sharply, sharingan activating. "How did you know?" he hissed.

"I'm a medic, Sasuke-kun, and I can summon as well. You develop a relationship with your summon, and you can know when they are being summoned. You feel something of a tingling sensation when someone else summons them with no problem, but if your chakra is unstable, you know something's up, because there might be a probability your summon is being summoned against your will." I told him, raising an eyebrow and crossing my arms across my chest.

He sighed, sharingan fading from his eyes. He knew I'd caught him.

"After Anko taught me how to summon snakes, I practised on my own until I got used to it. One day I used more chakra that usual, just to see what I could do. He appeared. I summon him sometimes so that we can train together, and as much as he's fucking annoying, he's really helped me," he muttered, going slightly pale when Itachi's eyes narrowed in his direction.

"That is what explains your exhaustion when you claim to come from training," Itachi said, finally connecting the dots when Sasuke-kun nodded.

We travelled on for another few hours at the usual ridiculous ANBU speeds, and when we saw the looming shape of a slithering snake tongue emerging from the big-ass head of a snake, we knew we had arrived at our destination and the mood immediately became sombre again.

We stopped just outside the gate of the village, if you could even call it that. Itachi, Sasuke-kun and Shisui activated their bloodline limits, scanning the place of anyone we needed to go through.

"It is deserted. It seems, however, going by the haphazard nature of the alleys, that it was a hasty escape. The must have known that we would come after them without delay. Contrary to popular belief, Orochaimaru is _still _a genius, I believe," Itachi muttered.

A very unsettled feeling settled at the pit of my stomach. Something wasn't right.

"Let's go have a look," Kakashi-sensei said, leading the way into the village. Or rather, what was left of it.

We walked through the deserted alleys and streets, looking around. There was practically no living thing around. Meals were left unfinished, tracks were left in the middle of the roads, clothes in baskets, TVs left on...it looked like everyone was herded out of there in a huge rush.

Naruto wondered into what looked like a dark alley and his whimper of distress made us all rush there at blinding speeds.

Naruto is one of the bravest shinobi I know, partly due to his stupidity, and partly due to his iron will of protecting his friends, allies and those of his villages. Naruto _never _whimpers in distress. _Never._

When we got to the end of the ally, however, I could fully understand why he did.

Piled up in mountains, one on top of the other were corpses. _Chewed _corpses. _Chewed human _corpses. There was a green sticky liquid dripping from them. Immediately, instinctively, I whipped out a test tube from my kunai pouch. I carefully walked to the corpses and scooped some of it into the tube. The pungent smell was _despicable. _If I was a lesser kunoichi, I know I'd have blacked out.

It was _fucking disgusting._

"Otouto," Itachi called out calmly. His voice was cold, hard as steel. Oh yeah, he was _pissed. _"Summon him."

We all moved out of the way as Sasuke-kun grimly bit his thumb and did the required seals. He slapped the ground with his palm, the big pattern appearing and a pouf of grey smoke. When the smoke dissipated, Manda, the giant snake summon was there.

He looked down at us, hissing and nodding, acknowledging our presence.

"Sasuke," he greeted, lowering his head for Sasuke-kun to climb on.

"Manda," Sasuke-kun replied, sitting on his nose and facing him. "Who did this?"

Manda sighed, closing his scary, yellow eyes. "I did."

"Why?"

"Orochimaru told me. He blackmailed me. He said he would destroy my younglings if I didn't."

I sighed. "Manda, can't you get Orochimaru off your summoning contract?" I asked slowly.

"No, I cannot, regrettably. It's a _contract._ I cannot get out of it unless it's a two way agreement. He also has an affinity to snakes. If I get out of it with him, he can find some way to summon my younglings, and Orochimaru is a fucking bastard. I don't trust him with myself. I cannot afford to have him poison my younglings. The most I can do is warn you and Anko that I'm being summoned, and hope that you summon me." He said dully.

There was a tense silence.

"That green, stuff, by the way, is something Kabuto made. I think he wanted to confirm that these humans are dead."

"Thank you, Manda. Do you know Orochimaru's agenda?" Itachi asked, sharingan spinning slowly.

Manda seemed unmoved. He could tell Itachi meant no harm and was probably scanning the place of any life.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke's aniki. I don't know what the bastard is trying. He just told me to get rid of these people because they would slow him down or some shit like that. I think he was running away from Konoha. I could trace him for you, if you like," he offered.

"No thanks. You are right, however. He is running away from us. He captured a traitor we were about to assassinate, and he knew we'd come for him. Fucking asshole," Sasuke-kun growled, still sitting atop his head.

"Can you please take us to his lab? I wanna see what he had in there. Maybe I can try and get his intentions from what he had there," I asked. He nodded, before lowering his head again, and all of us climbed on.

He slithered his way there, going through a maze of streets and alleyways. We finally got to what was the only brick building in the place. We jumped down, and I was the first to walk in.

There were walls and walls and more fucking walls of chemicals, and most of them were for embalming. Decapitated heads stared down at us. There was each and every single human body part.

"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, is this a...a...oh my Kami, that's a _dick,"_ Naruto yelled, totally appalled.

Predicatably, Shisui and Genma collapsed to the floor in laughter. Kakashi-sensei smirked. I sighed, Hana grinned, Sasuke-kun sighed and Itachi raised a gorgeous eyebrow.

Naruto was such an _idiot. _

"No, Naruto. It's a penis, the male sexual organ. I recommend you check and confirm that you still have yours," I replied dryly, looking around at the chemicals on the shelves.

His face went tomato red, and it was Hana's turn to collapse on the floor in laughter.

"Oh God...Oh Kami," Sasuke-kun stuttered, stumbling backwards. We all rushed to the door that he opened, and my voice caught in my throat at what I saw.

"Oh My Kami," I whispered, feeling dizzy. I felt myself drop to my knees, and before I hit the ground, two strong, muscular arms wrapped around me, and held me.

This was total war.

**Aaaaahh...don't you just love cliffys? *sadistic smirk***

**Again, sorry for the lack of updates. It's called UNIVERSITY. It's sucks major monkey balls.**

_**More randomness: **_**this time I was listening to Hero's comeback, the first beginning credits song for Shippudden. EPICNESS! :D**


	26. Chapter 26

**Mendoukusei 26.**

What the hell?

Seriously, _what the hell?_

I was enveloped in Itachi's arms, and I was entirely grateful for his support, because I _know _that I'd just be a collapsed mess on the floor if it weren't for his dominant, reassuring presence.

I knew Orochimaru was borderline insane. I knew he was retarded in that he wanted to master all the jutsu in the world. I knew he was a sadist who purely thrived in the torture of others, and I also realised that Yakushi Kabuto, his protégé, was no different.

This, however, what we were all seeing, was just pushing it. This made me question: who, or rather, _what _were we fighting? What kind of _monsters _would do this to another living, breathing being and not feel a stab of conscience?

In his quest for power, Orochimaru had sacrificed his sanity and humanity, and all that was left was an empty shell, and in the end, it would only lead to his sad demise, just like Uchiha Madara.

He knew what Madara had done, had been doing; wanting to achieve eternal life, and wanting to control the world using the bijuu. He slowly saw (or at least, heard) the disintegration of his sanity and eventually, his humanity. In the end he totally lost it, blatantly attacked Konoha and was killed by his own ambition.

I had to differ with Itachi on this one. For a genius, Orochimaru was an absolute idiot.

This, however, was not the time to talk about Orochimaru's misgivings. I looked around the room, then at the evidence in front of us, and I choked in shock again at the sight before us. Itachi's arms around me tightened.

I'm not innocent, therefore not one to bring judgement on anyone. I chose my profession, chose to be a murderer, and I have no right to say that anyone is more or less evil than me, but I believe I have a right to declare those more _inhumane _than me.

I tried moving forward, but Itachi outright _refused _to let me go. I looked up at him, silently requesting him to let me go examine what was in front of him. The stern look he gave me told me that he was not letting me go.

"Please," I pleaded gently.

His crimson eyes softened, and they slowly turned back to onyx, before he fluttered them closed and sighed quietly. He gently nudged me forward, in a silent attempt to tell me that he would be going with me.

I smiled slightly to myself, shaking my head at his over-protective tendencies, though he meant well.

I wiggled in his arms, so that I could turn around and face my teammates, who were still getting over their shock. I stood on my tippy toes and peeped up at them from over Itachi's shoulder, but my mouth was still on his collar bone.

"Don't come forward until I tell you to," I said slowly, my voice being slightly muffled by Itachi's shoulder. I knew they heard me though, and I turned around, facing in front, and slowly walked toward one of the most gruesome sights I'd ever had the misfortune of seeing.

In front of us was Yamamoto Kita, her arms and legs spread apart and chained down to the four different ends of a single bed. She had been skinned alive, all the blood drained from her system. Only her head and her face still had her skin on, and her muscle fibres were still hydrated by a very well mixed kind of embalming fluid of sorts. The most disturbing thing about this was that _she was still alive, _and we could see her beating heart, and the area around her lungs was still moving up and down, very slightly.

This procedure could not have been completed more than half an hour ago.

For a long moment, I was completely at a loss on what to do. Medically speaking, there was _nothing _I could do. The skin is one of the most important organs of the human body, and once removed, it was almost impossible to put it back. Even Shishou couldn't do it, and she is one of the most revered medics in shinobi history.

"We must end her misery, my queen. There is nothing any of us can do. We are at war and we must head back with immediate haste. There is no telling what might happen when the enemy realises that we are no there," Itachi whispered in my ear, before nuzzling my neck with his nose to try and calm me down.

Tears began forming in my eyes. I tried to hold them in, but they uncontrollably flowed down my face. I was a medic, a fucking medic. I was supposed to _save lives, _not destroy them. I couldn't save this one life. Even if it was the life of a traitor, it was a precious life all the same, and _I couldn't save it._

I tried opening my mouth to concur, but all that came out was a chocked sob. Itachi sighed into my hair, before I felt his head turn.

"Kakashi, Otouto, Naruto-kun, I kindly request you to take Sakura out and be with her. She is not in a very balances state at the moment," he said to them.

Itachi's warmth left me, and with it went his masculine scent of fresh rainwater and pine, but I felt a large hand on my head, another in my left hand and another in my right.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. With a loud wail, I turned around and buried my face in Kakashi-sensei's chest, bawling my eyes out. He put two steady arms around me, before Naruto and Sasuke-kun came in and joined our embrace.

I don't know how long we all stood there as I cried my eyes puffy, but it seemed to be a very long time.

"Let's go outside," Sasuke-kun said gently, his calm baritone reassuring me that everything would be alright. By this time I could tell my eyes were red and puffy from crying, and I was still slightly sniffing.

I looked at Naruto, blue eyes sharp with worry, then at Kakshi-sensei, looking as indifferent as he always did, though the lack of _Icha Icha _truly betrayed his worry for me. Sasuke-kun's onyx eyes, so like his brother's were also full of worry.

They were so very concerned for me, and I was extremely grateful. I really, really loved my boys to bits.

I smiled through the tears still staining my face. "Yeah, let's," I said, voice rough. I grabbed Naruto and Sasuke-kun's hands, and looked up at Kakashi-sensei. He took his place behind us, and we slowly walked outside, right past the walls of chemicals into the fresh air.

It seemed Manda had already disappeared, but Shisui was setting up tents for camp, Hana was preparing dinner, and Gemna was setting up traps, double checking and confirming that they were fine.

Itachi stood in the middle of it all, scanning the area with his sharingan.

My smile widened. They realised that at this point in time I needed my genin team the most, because we'd sweated and bled and fought and had near-death experiences together. They realised the bonds we formed with each other when we met such horrible terrible circumstances and survived. They knew we were having a Team Seven moment, and they respected that.

In their own weird way, they gave me the support they knew I needed by letting me be and coming out and preparing where we'd be staying.

I couldn't help the big smile on my face.

"Hey," Hana called, her voice uncharacteristically gentle. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Fine, thanks."

"Anything you need?" Shisui asked. I shook my head.

"You sure?" Gemna added. "I mean, all you have to do is ask. We really wouldn't mind doing whatever."

I shook my head again. "No," I said quietly, looking around at all of them and smiling warmly. "This is more than enough."

They totally understood what I meant by that statement. Naruto and Sasuke-kun pushed me toward the fire, and I went and sat down, enjoying the warmth. Slowly, one by one, everyone came and joined me around the fire. We had dinner and conversed, going through some of the more hilarious missions we ever had. I laughed particularly hard when I heard about Sasuke-kun's first seduction mission.

He had gone with Kakashi-sensei, Shisui and Itachi, and he had no idea what they were going to do at first. They suddenly got to their destination and Sasuke-kun found himself surrounded by the most gorgeous women he had ever seen in his life. It was then that he was duly informed by his smirking brother what was going on, and before he had time to throw a fit, he was promptly led into a room and had three perpetual threesomes, one after the other. He jumped outside the window after that, having garnered all the info he needed, for fear he would die of sexual excess. He could barely walk the next day (it _was_ his first time, after all) and when he met with the three older males, the mischievous smirks on their faces told him he did _not _want to know what _they_ were doing. His innocence was already ruined as it was, and he was much too distraught to hear any detailed explanations of their orgies.

Good times, these were.

I was yawning loudly, before I realised sleep was catching up, though it was more of emotional exhaustion than sleep.

"I'm tired," I murmured.

"Team Kakashi is keeping watch tonight. I'll start, then Hana, Sasuke and Naruto. Tomorrow we leave for Konoha," Kakashi-sensei said.

I tiredly stood up, and begun walking towards the tent Itachi and I would share for the evening. I followed him into the tent, removing my gloves, boots and hitai-ate. I wiggled into the sleeping bag and closed my eyes, preparing myself myself for a much needed sleep. A few moments later, I felt a warm, lean and muscular body behind me, and my fiancé's powerful arms wrapped around me, pulling me flush on his chest. I sighed blissfully, before turning around to face him. I was curious as to what he did with Kita's body.

I looked up at him, and his onyx eyes met mine. "What did you do with her body, Ita-kun?" I asked quietly. "How did you dispose of it?"

I pushed a kunai through her heart to speed her death, then I burnt the corpse with amaterasu. We cannot afford to leave evidence behind, just in case Orochimaru decides to come back," he replied just as quietly.

I sighed, understanding his reasoning. "Why d'you think he did it? Was he trying to scare us something?" I asked, feeling my agitation.

Itachi pulled me closer to his body, shifting in the process. "I don't know. That is a probable conclusion, however. Perhaps he is trying to prove a point, or maybe he is trying to intimidate us," he looked down at me.

"I have no idea what he is thinking, but we must not let him get to us. I understand that you would feel that he has gone too far with this incident, and I also understand that you want nothing more than to hunt him down and skin him alive before beating him up to an unidentifiable corpse. This is not the time, however. We still have many unanswered questions. We need to know who was manipulating Yamamoto Kita in Konoha and why. We then need to establish a connection to Kumo in this mess and figure out whether or not Iwa is involved. After this, we need to see how this will affect our allies," he paused. I think he could tell that he had totally lost me somewhere.

He dipped his head to my neck, and pressed a chaste kiss there. Exhaling, he whispered, "There are very many logistics involved in a war, other than the usual supplies and forces and what not. That is why we have analysts. We need to figure out all these answers first before we figure out how we are going to deal with this war."

I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of having him so wrapped up around me.

"I'm gonna kill him, Ita-kun. I swear it." I said fiercely under my breath.

"Yes you are, my queen. Yes you are," he replied.

I closed my eyes, and sunk into my slumber.

**Hey guys. This is my sad, sad attempt at an angsty chapter. To be honest, I personally think it sucks, but my best friend swears upside down it's awesome. I'm not really good at writing sad, angsty, emo stuff, because I'll probably end up bawling my eyes out instead. I really do hope you like it.**

**If this was a waste of your time, my greatest apologies.**


	27. Chapter 27

**I dedicate this chapter to Amori-chan, who turned 21 on 14****th**** May. Happy, happy birthday, darling. I hope you had an awesome time and dreamt of hot, wild sex with Itachi. Sorry I couldn't update on your birthday as requested coz I was struggling with some bloody assignment.**

_**Randomness: **_**Itachi was the only shinobi in history to use tsukiyomi to its fullest potential. (This is dedicated to Itaweasel-hime for sheer fangirling purposes. :])**

**Mendoukusei 27.**

"Saaaaaaaaakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaan! Itaaaaaaaaaachi-taaaaaaaaaaaichou!"

That blonde knuckle-head really needed a beating.

I cracked one eye open, irritated at the fact that one Uzumaki Naruto, one of the most powerful ANBU operatives in Konoha, student of the revered Copy nin, mentee to a legendary sannin, a toad sage, the kyuubi jinchuuriki and son of the late, great Yondaime Hokage was currently standing outside the tent I shared with Itachi and was shouting like an stupid genin, absolutely disregarding the fact that we were _in the middle of enemy territory. _

"Shut up, dobe. We're in the middle of enemy territory," Sasuke-kun growled, no doubt following that with a smack upside his head.

Kakashi-sensei was right. Naruto was a formidable shinobi in the field, but was still a blundering idiot when it came to everything else.

"Just because you have utterly no regard for your own self-preservation doesn't mean that the rest of us don't as well," I heard Shisui grumble.

I finally managed to fully wake up, and slightly nudge my fiancé so that he could let me go. We needed to prepare ourselves for our journey back to Konoha. Kami knows the news we have to tell Shishou. She isn't going to take it very well, and at this moment of war, she could not afford to have her wits all over the place.

It took Itachi and I a grand total of fifteen minutes to get ready, and after another three minutes of last minute checking, we were out of there.

We were sprinting in the forest, when I felt a kunai whizz a few millimetres past my ear. It embedded itself in a tree a few strides in front of me. I sighed.

"It seems we have company," Kakashi-sensei drawled.

The sky suddenly got darker. I stopped jumping on the trees and looked up. There were arrows flying through the air. Thousands of them. So many, they almost blocked out the sun.

I narrowed my eyes. Only one village still used arrows to fight.

Itachi landed on the ground below us. His eyes bled into crimson, his pupil splitting into the three tomoe that define the sharingan. The tomoe spun fast, going bladed, turning into the mangekyou. With a high degree of self control and his trademark speed, he did the seals of the Uchiha trademark technique. He was moving so fast, I could barely see. Only someone with a sharingan could see his hands move, and even then, all they'd see would be a blur. I felt his killing intent, dark and menacing spike for a moment, before jumping into the sky and muttering to himself, loud enough for us to hear.

"Katon: goukayuu no jutsu."

With those four words he produced the biggest kaaton goukakyuu I'd ever seen in my life. It had to have a radius of at least one and a half metres.

That fireball obliterated every single one of those arrows. _Every single one of them._

All of us, with the exception of Kakashi-sensei, Shisui and Sasuke-kun were gaping like idiots, our jaws on the ground and our eyes wider than saucers.

The Iwa shinobi, who had probably coming to see if they'd killed us and probably come to clean up, had the exact same reaction we did, as they say the charred remains of their arrows fall from the sky, only when they saw the Uchiha heir and the Copy nin standing in front of them, looking utterly relaxed and smirking sadistically at them, did shock utterly dissolve into fear.

They were so many. It was as if they had sent an army. This thought is what reminded me we were at war at the moment, and this is what Iwa had sent to fight us.

Well, it was a pity that their fight was probably starting and ending here.

"Go."

That was the order we needed. I hit the ground, jut releasing enough chakra to break the ground, and instead of splitting it up into pieces, I picked up a boulder. It must have weighed a few thousand kilograms.

I flung it upward and forward and at the same time I did this, Sasuke-kun jumped up, unsheathing his katana, going at the boulder at full speed. He suddenly disappeared and then reappeared before it less than a second later. Jumping back down, right in front of his aniki and Kakashi-sensei, the boulder split cleanly into two, and Naruto, jumped up, forming a kage bunshin, and gathering the kyuubi chakra into his feet, kicked the boulders forward.

The boulders flew forward, landing onto some of the back forces of the Iwa shinobi. All this took about two or so minutes. I should say about a third of their forces were crushed to death.

Shisui, the only ANBU operative in Konoha's history to fight with two Katana, unsheathed them from his back, and flickered out of there. Within three seconds flat, he was back to his spot, blood dripping from both his katana, and two columns from the left and right flanks of the Iwa forces had dropped dead, all of them decapitated.

Gemna removed tens of senbon from his shruiken holster on his thigh, and with a few flicks of his wrists, the senbon were lodged into the throats of the Iwa forces. Another two columns of Iwa forces dead, and Gemna was so proficient with his senbon, you could only see his hands blurry movement whenever he flicked his wrists forward and threw those senbon.

Deadly and accurate. Absolutely spectacular.

Hana and her dogs made clones of themselves, several of them, and with the speed of an ANBU dove into the Iwas forces, _ripping heads off._ Within seconds as well, the two middle columns were down, their decapitated heads only a few centimetres from their corpses.

Hana and her dogs had not a drop of blood on them.

By then, half the forces were down.

"Well, then, Uchiha Taichou, Hatake Taichou, I believe we shall leave the rest of them to you," Shisui said lightly, swinging his katana to get the blood of them.

"Yes. That is all." Itachi said, lilting tenor quiet, making his sadism extremely evident.

I smashed my legs together to stop myself from orgasming on the spot. Did he realise just what he did to my hormones when he spoke like that?

Again, Itachi did his hand signs, so fast, that it seemed as if he did no signs at all. A massive water dragon appeared from behind him. It landed on the remaing Iwa forces, but not with enough force to kill them.

"Raikiri," Kakashi-sensei muttered, before dipping his hand into the water and removing it immediately. The rest of the forces were electrocuted, their screams echosing all over the dark gloomy forest in the outskirts of Otogakure no Sato.

"The battle is over. We shall proceed with our journey to Konoha," Kakashi-sensei muttered, and we continued with our journey.

We got to the gate of the village and saw Shishou and Jiraiya-sama there. They were looking rather restless, and they only got tenser when they saw s approach looking like we'd just walked out of a spa. We were so relaxed, it would have been hard to convince anyone that we had actually just come from a mission. An S-class mission, no less.

"Why are you looking so smug?" Shishou growled, more form impatient tension than anything else.

"We have just obliterated the Iwa forces you are probably waiting for, Hokage-sama," Itachi drawled. "They were on the way here to begin fighting, but we thought it would be better if we dealt with them. I assume you have much better things to do than deal with such mediocre shinobi."

All Shihsou did was raise an eyebrow and Jiraiya-sama just shook his head.

"Uchiha, your vanity is unbelievable," Shishou muttered more to herself, but we all ended up hearing anyway.

"It is acceptable, Tsunade-sama. I can back it up with my abilities, after all. Empty vanity is what is unacceptable," he replied, as he walked off. How the hell did I end up getting engaged with such a man? I just hope our children don't end up like that, though they probably would. If Fugaku otoo-san, Sasuke-kun and Itachi were anything to go by, vanity seemed to be an in-born Uchiha trait.

_Hold up, you've just thought about children with him, _my inner said, sounding shy and coy.

My face promptly turned beet red, and everyone noticed. Shisui, Gemna, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were smirking, and I knew they were thinking perverted thoughts.

Bastards.

Sasuke-kun just raised an eyebrow, Hana grinned good-naturedly, happy for me, and Itachi was nowhere to be seen.

"Do not worry, my queen," Itachi whispered into my ear, his arms wrapped around me from behind. His masculine scent of fresh rainwater and pine flooded my senses, and I felt protection and comfort, as was usual whenever he wrapped that lean, muscular, god-like body of his around me.

"The time will come when you will give me an heir, and I must admit that I am really looking forward to seeing you so full with my child. You will be a beautiful sight to behold, and I will be the only one who will have the authority to fully..._appreciate _you because you're _mine, _as you are well aware," he went on, putting particular emphasis on the word appreciate. I knew he did not mean it in its natural meaning, and that's what made me blush like an academy school girl once again.

"Erm...err...ye-yes. It is going to a joyous moment," I replied softly, my face getting even redder. I was at a loss for words at how direct he was when he was talking about such a sensitive subject.

"Okay, enough public displays of affection there. Sakura, go make yourself useful in the hospital. Itachi, go see how the troops are doing at the fronts. I cannot have my strongest shinobi making babies when they are supposed to helping out in a war effort," Shishou called. She had a look of mild disgust on her face.

I snorted softly. It's really rich for Tsunade Shihsou to have contempt for public displays of affection. Rumour has it that she and her former lover, Dan, engaged in it more often than not in all manner of (mostly inappropriate) places, the hospital included.

"Ah, it would be interesting to have you conceive during a war, would it not, my queen?" Itachi whispered heatedly, his lilting tenor having dropped an octave. I gasped when he captured my earlobe in his mouth.

I opened my mouth to try and respond, but when he begun grinding his hips into my behind, my brain cells were totally overwhelmed by the pleasure as I was going through. My mouth went dry. It was impossible what this man could do to me.

Suddenly, he disappeared. His heat left me, and the sudden breeze that hit me brought me back to the present.

He was going to get it for that.

**Sorry guys. Another age and a half before I updated. School is being a bitch, and I have exams soon, so updates are only gonna get more scarce. Hope you enjoy this, though, coz I was high on sugar when I was doing this. :D**


	28. Chapter 28

**Mendoukusei 28.**

I was frozen into a terrified shock.

Konoha and her allies had been at war for the past three months against Iwa, Kumo and Oto. More often than not, it had been gruesome. Fields of dead shinobi littered the countryside, and the enemy, mostly Oto, did not hesitate to use under handed methods of intimidation to attempt to scare us into doing what they wanted.

I must admit, many at times, it worked.

This time, however, they had pushed it. Very, very hard.

We were crammed, yet again in the Hokage's office. Even Shisui was dead serious.

Shishou sighed. Jiraiya-sama was standing in a corner with Asuma-sensei.

"You have all heard the news, right?"

Kiba and Shino tensed. Hinata's chakra spiked for a split second before she brought it under control. Her fists were clenched.

"Kurenai has been kidnapped-"

Asuma-sensei growled. Shishou swallowed before deciding to blatantly ignore him and continue.

Quite honestly she had forgotten how intimidating her jounin were. We, as Konoha 12 knew well enough; they were our sensei. Their ruthlessness increased as we got higher in the ranks. We could tell from the training.

"-by Oto. As you are all quite aware, she is pregnant, two months gone. She has not really started showing, but she is at the point where if she does anything strenuous, she will lose the child and she cannot afford to lose that child." She was silent, shaking slightly.

I gulped. This was getting very dirty. If Orochimaru figured out she was pregnant, things would not be good at all. Who knows what sickening things he'd do. I mentally shook my head. I honestly did not want to think about it.

"Oto knows we'll probably go after her, so they are expecting that. We don't want another Yamamoto Kita situation, but we cannot leave her at their clutches. We know what those shinobi are like. We need to get her out of there without them suspecting anything. We need a distraction," She finished.

"We absolutely must get her back, Hokage-sama," Hinata finally said, her voice losing the trademark sweetness it held, replaced by the cold brutality of a seasoned kunoichi. "If not, I will see to it that Orochimaru is subjected to torture so horrible, he would never have thought of it himself."

Her killing intent started rolling off her. I saw Ino-pig sweat a little. I couldn't blame her. Hinata rarely lost her temper. It was no secret that she had a very bad temper, worse than even her father's, and that was saying a lot.

"Operative Haruno," Shihsou barked. "Tell me about the green substance you picked up from the forest outside Otogakure no Sato."

"It's a herbal based poison made of extremely dangerous toxins. It has very strong dehydration properties and only seems to work when consumed. It absorbs all bodily fluids and moisture from all cells making them collapse inwardly. It's obviously very painful and it takes a healthy adult human being about forty five minutes to an hour to die from it."

Jiraiya-sama narrowed his eyes. "Typical of Orochimaru and his minions. They find pleasure in watching others suffer. That is the kind of sadism that's only expected from them."

Shihsou sighed again. She took a huge swig of the sake in her sake bottle. "What the hell are we gonna do? I called you in here because you're my best shinobi and I need a plan to get Kurenai back. Perhaps I should remind you who she's engaged to and what destruction might befall our training grounds and one too many enemy shinobi? I'm quite honestly not in the mood of facing the Daimyo and explaining to him why my powerful shinobi are causing havoc again. The Kakashi saga was bad enough."

That brought a few half hearted laughs from the rest of us, including Asuma-sensei himself as we remembered what Kakashi-sensei did.

About a year after I became a jounin, Anko and I were sent on an S-Class mission to Iwa. On our way back, we were attacked by Oto shinobi. We were exhausted and were were not able to fight to our best ability. Luckily, scouts who were investigating the area around the forest found us, and only just managed to bring us back to Konoha, and we were a mess. After we came round and we were questioned, Kakashi-sensei took it upon himself and went to Oto and caused a good deal of destruction there. He destroyed all their infrastructure and killed quite a number of shinobi as well. The slimy bastards then had the audacity to report us and Shihsou was called to have a word with the Daimyou. She only got away with it because we had so many respected shinobi hailing from our village and said respected shinobi had protected the Daimyou and his family on quite a number of occasions.

Good times. I really wonder why such events were never recorded for futre reference.

"GAARA," Naruto suddenly yelled from out of nowhere.

"Gaara, Kankurou and Temari. They can go get her. Oro-bastard would never expect them to go for her. We can look like we're just gonna go fighting, then Itachi taichou and temee and Kakashi-sensei can think of something awesome on the spot to sneak them away from us, coz they are geniuses and shit, then while we pwn their sorry asses, the three of them can go and get her, then Sakura-chan can do an awesome break-the-ground-apart-to-totally-destroy-it thing as we escape, and then we'll bring her back safely, dattebayo!"

The room was silent, the kind of silence that accompanies the finishing speech of the village idiot after he has said something stupid, a.k.a after Naruto talks. Everyone in the room had raised their eyebrows.

It still baffles me how someone with such amazing and high intelligence such as the late Yondaime could produce someone quite as stupid as Naruto. Genes were unbelievable.

"Naruto, it's genii," I said dryly. I turned to Shihsou to ask her a question that's been burning at the back of my mind since I became a jounin. "How the hell did you accept him into ANBU?" I asked her.

"It's the kyuubi," she replied, just as dryly. "Plus, he _is _the Yondaime's son. At least something of his intelligence must have seeped through that thick skull."

Kakashi-sensei actually smorted. "I must beg to differ, Tsunade-sama. Minato-sensei was a genius. Even his mother wasn't this obtuse. A bit boisterous, yes, but not this dense," he went on, with Jiraiya-sama nodding his head in assent vigorously.

"Anosa," Naruto said again, eyes moon shaped, brow creased and his arms crossed on his chest, a sign that he was in deep concentration. "Who exactly are you guys talking about?"

I sighed. That kyuubi spirit must really have it hard. I really wonder how he has it living in Naruto's brain, probably forever. Though he had agreed to work with Naruto from now on with no diabolical thoughts of trying to kill him, i did feel quite a semblance of pity for it.

"As I was saying, before this conversation got sidetracked, we need to think of strategies to bring Kurenai back as soon as possible."

With this statement, the sombre mood returned.

"Perhaps we should just use Naruto-kun's strategy with some more thought put into it. The Sand Siblings and the Mizukage are one of our most trusted allies, and since most of Konoha's shinobi are fighting at the forefront with Oto Shinobi, it would not be shocking to send some of us there as well. We will keep Orochimaru, Kabuto and their elite busy as the Mizukage and the Sand Siblings infiltrate Otogakure and rescue Kurenai-san." Itachi stated.

"We, however, must make it look like we are taking our most powerful forces to an area where our forces are in need of help, because knowing Orochimaru, he is a show off and he will, no doubt, go there to gloat, and us sending three Uchiha, the Copy Nin, the Hokage's apprentice, the Yondaime's son and the most dangerous senbon user will draw him there to gloat all the more" Shikamaru added.

"Then because Mizukage-sama and the Sand Siblings would have the mental capacity to understand the importance of this mission being covert, unlike other shinobi we know too well, they will quickly but quietly sneak into Otogakure, or wherever it is that they are holding Kurenai-sensei, and retrieve her without either Orochimaru and Kabuto knowing what is going on. By the time they realise what is going on we should be, at the very least, next to Konoha's borders, and even though they decide to attack, it's only natural that they will be hesitant to do so because of the powerful shinobi involved in this operation." Neji finished.

Shishou smirked. It had been a very long time since I'd seen that reaction on her face, probably since this bloody war started.

"If only Mei was here. I'm surrounded by genius shinobi. And she's always questioning why Konoha is so powerful," she said, taking another huge swig of sake from her bottle, the smugness rolling off her in waves.

I rolled my eyes. Tsunade-sama was such a show off.

"You heard them. I'll get in touch with Mei, since I'm probably the only one she'll listen to. Naruto, you talk to Gaara, since _you're _probably the only one he'll listen to. The brat has absolutely no respect for his elders, the little shit. Shikamaru, go to that lazy ass father of yours and tell him to formulate a perfect plan to carry this out, and he should not even dare say how troublesome this is, because he has about five bloody days to do it. Kakashi, I need you to stay, since I need us to brainstorm what instructions we will give to the guys at the front to get Ororchimaru and Kabuto away from Kurenai for a bit. Now, get out of my office, all of you. I have quite a lot to do, and yes, that includes you too, Jiraiya. In fact, you can keep an eye on Asuma for me."

We all got out of there, and I decided to head to the hospital and see if there was something I could do to help.

I was just about to finish the rounds that Shizune nee-chan assigned me when I bumped into the bane of my existence. Or rather, the bane of my existence ran into me:

Uchiha Emi.

She was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my life. Long shoulder length raven hair and almond shaped onyx eyes. She was tall, graceful and accomplished, and no doubt one of the most talented medic-nins of her generation. Typical of any Uchiha, she was unbelievably smart, and male shinobi have been known to willingly go for S Class missions just to _be in her presence._

The only reason I absolutely could not stand her is that she could not get over the fact that Itachi had not chosen her to be his bride, as per the clan council's wished. She had just been promoted to jounin, at least three weeks after I'd joined ANBU.

"Haruno-san," she said, looking me up and down.

"Yes, Emi? What is it?" I replied, not in the mood of dealing with her at the moment.

"You are late. Your shift began an hour and a half ago, I believe," she said, almost condescendingly.

I narrowed my eyes. This _young, accomplished lady_ had seemed to forget who exactly was going to be her _future clan matriarch_ and _boss in the hospital_. Perhaps I should remind her. It was part of my job after all.

"Let me remind you, Emi, that I am the _head field medic_ of Konoha, and therefore in times of war or any other such crisis my abilities are required, first and foremost in the field, no? We greatly increase their chances of living after such gruelling battles, and when we send them here we make things very easy for you guys. So if you have nothing of substance to tell me, please excuse me. I have reports of injured shinobi to fill," I snapped back

Not waiting for her to reply, I passed by her and went to the office. It was then that I remembered I was probably on the team that would end up retrieving Kurenai-sensei, and sighed deeply again.

"What frustrates you, my queen?" I heard Itachi's smooth silky voice, in some corner somewhere in my office.

"So many things, Ita-kun. This war, Oto, Orochimaru, Iwa, Kumo, marriage, your clan, my team, your fangirls, the hospital...so many things,"I replied, holding my head in my hands on my desk.

He suddenly appeared in front of me, his hand on my chin and lifted my head up.

"Do not worry too much, particularly about marriage and my clan. Everything else will work out." He whispered, before gently placing his lips on my mouth and devouring my mouth.

Suddenly, an ANBU burst into my office, severly injured and bleeding all over the floor.

"Oto...Sandaime..." she blacked out, probably from blood loss.

With one look, Itachi disappeared from my office and I moved to see to the injured shinobi collapsed on the floor.

What was going on?

***hides behind wall to dodge rotten veggies and building blocks* Look guys, I'm so freaking sorry. There's been so much going on; applying and getting rejected for houses, moving out to stay with friends, being broke, school, assignments, exams, reading...all this, then I proceed to leave you guys with a cliffy, kinda.**

***ducks behind wall again to dodge broken computer screen* I sincerely apologise. It's holidays now, and in between the LAN parties, ridiculous alcohol consumption, travel, and watching anime and reading manga, I promise to update, once every week, okay?**

**Hope you enjoy this. :D**

***ducks to dodge broken office chair***


	29. Chapter 29

**Mendoukusei 29.**

I was running around in the hospital, organising the mayhem that was going on.

I wanted to go out there and see for myself what was going on, but I could not because Shizune nee-chan wasn't in the hospital. I had to organise the casualties that were coming in, particularly injured shinobi that needed to go back into the battle. The civilians also, were in a daze, for they had no idea what was going on. One minute they are happily minding their own business, going about their normal duties, the next minute there are explosions and that weird jutsu stuff those pesky shinobi are always throwing around like rocks. Suddenly they are being evacuated to a safe place of the village, as if there is a war or an invasion going on. They always decided it would be best to keep out of shinobi politics. It was too complicated for them.

I couldn't blame them.

I really felt that I needed to be in the field at the moment. It seemed that Orochimaru had used the forbidden Impure World Resurrection Summoning technique. It's the only thing that would explain that ANBU operative got into my office bleeding to death and breathing about the Sandaime.

I dashed into all the wards that had the most gravely injured of both the shinobi and the civillains. I met Uchiha Emi, the one person I never wanted to talk to, but the one person I could (professionally) trust to make sure the hospital was run properly in my and Shizune nee-chan's absence.

"Emi, can I have a word please?" I asked, as she walked pat me, swaying her hips and gathering the attention of every man in the room, severe injuries notwithstanding.

"I need you to take charge of the hospital. I am going into the field to see what's going on. I expect a report on my desk as soon as Konoha shinobi have discharged the enemies from out land," I slowly commanded.

She eyed me for a little bit, before slowly nodding. I raised my eyebrow at her arrogance, snorted (which achieved my intention of irritating her, if the sudden narrowing of her eyes was any indication) and teleported myself out of there.

I appeared somewhere in the forest, and the first thing I saw was a shinobi flying overhead, a senbon stuck in his throat and his arm viciously ripped off.

I narrowed my eyes. Those were trademark attack modes by two well known and well feared shinobi of Konoha.

Without thinking twice, I immediately raced toward the opposite direction, before I was rudely interrupted.

Right in front of me, a huge wall of earth appeared, solid and strong. Behind me, I could hear yells of people, and I could not recognise any of the chakra patterns, which were fluctuating wildly. They were either in great pain or royally pissed.

"There she is, the stupid little brat. It's her. Found her. It's the Hokage's apprentice. Obnoxious pink hair, you say? She's definitely the one."

Royally pissed it was.

They were many. Vey many, easily over fifty of them. They definitely did not look like they were chuunin ranked either, and going by the smirks on their faces, they predicted an easy victory for themselves.

"Let's get her," one of them growled, and they all dashed toward me. I was pumping chakra into my fists, ready to obliterate the ground below them then deal with them with a nice water jutsu, before they suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, and as much as they struggled, they could not move.

"What the fuck?" a kunoichi yelled. "What's going on? I can't move. At all. I'm immobilised. I'm fucking immobilised," she shrieked.

Said kunoichi looked at me, her blue eyes glaring ice daggers at me. "What have you done?" she growled. ""Release us now."

I looked at the ground under them, and saw a huge shadow. I could not help but smile.

I jumped into the trees and continued racing to where the majority of the fighting was, trusting Shikamaru to deal with those Iwa shinobi. It was silent for a while, before hearing an ear piercing scream then a huge explosion.

I was just about to enter into the main battle field, when Shikamaru joined me, that trademark lazy, irritated look on his face. I could not help it. I laughed. "Thank you for coming to my rescue, Shikamaru. It was very noble of you. I will be sure to tell Itachi of your wonderful deed, and maybe he may learn from your gentleman-like behaviour," I teased him.

He looked at me and sighed. "I only did that because I was nearby trying to sleep and they were making noise. I came to see what the ruckus was all about, then I saw your hair. I knew you'd deal with them on your own, but you'd end up destroying half the forest and that would have been troublesome, so I decided to deal with it myself," he mumbled.

I shook my head, still smiling wryly before we entered the core of the battle zone, and my smile was immediately wiped off my face.

This was a disaster. It was worse than a disaster. This was even worse that the attack we endured at the chuunin exams earlier on, and I never, ever thought it could get any worse than this.

Even by looking at their faces, I could tell that the shinobi that lay dead on the floor had died in the most painful ways possible. Body parts ripped apart, kunai, shruiken and senbon sticking out of fatal wounds, blood pouring out of all natural openings, broken skulls, crushed lungs, decapitated heads, it was all a horror.

"Most of our wounded are this way," Shikamaru told me quietly, after seeing the look on my face. "We've been fighting for a week now, and no Suna or Kiri shinobi have arrived to help us yet. It's going to be a disastrous loss, our first, if they don't arrive on time."

I was shocked into stunned silence. Shikamaru nudged me slowly toward where our wounded were and I almost chocked on my grief.

They were many, so, so many, I actually wondered if we had enough forces in the field. Swallowing my fear and calming down, I went to the middle of the field and sat down. I was terrified, scared out of my very wits, and for the first time since Kita's death, I was at a loss.

I could not show my fear. The medics had all breathed a long held in sigh of relief when they saw me, a high ranking medic who would somehow work a miracle and make the situation less bleak, because to be blunt, there was absolutely no hope of us ever winning this battle. Oto, Kumo and Iwa had won this one, and I was both terrified and angered at what that meant.

"What do we do now, Haruno-san?" one of the medics asked me. I looked at his face, and he had heavy bags under his eyes. He obviously had not slept in days, and it was probably adrenaline and caffeine that kept him going.

I let out a shaky sigh, before mustering a bright smile at him. "Don't worry. I've thought of something, and I'm sure it'll work. I just need some space, that's all." I said, with confidence I absolutely did not feel.

I wasn't lying. I did have an idea, I just wasn't sure if I had the chakra to pull it off. I had to rely on good, old chakra control. It's what got me through the ranks into ANBU, and it would get me through this.

The medics cleared the area around for me, and I bit my tongue, doing the seals necessary for this massive healing operation.

Boar. Dog. Bird. Monkey. Ram.

A huge pattern appeared on the floor, and Katsuyu-sama appeared before me.

She looked down at me, and her antennae twitched, happy to see me.

"Hello, Sakura. How can I help you?" she asked.

I sighed again, and then looked up at her. "Remember when Shishou was training me how to heal many people simultaneously, using you? I need to do that to help these guys, before we take them to the hospital in Konoha," I told her.

"Are you sure you'll manage it?" she asked.

"I don't know," I replied in all sincerity. "I thought it's the least I could do for these guys. They've fought for us and I just can't leave them like this."

"Very well," she said, before splitting up into smaller versions of herself. One of her clones got onto my shoulder and all the rest went onto the injured shinobi. Slowly concentrating, I channelled my chakra into her and she channelled it into her clones and begun healing the injured shinobi.

Towards my left I saw two medics huddled together speaking in low voices. One of them looked in my direction and quickly looked back at his counterpart, his face red. Instinct told me to keep an eye on those two, and that very instinct made me strongly suspect them.

"Katsuyu-sama," I whispered to her. She got what I was trying to say, despite her concerns that my chakra was dwindling. One of her clones went near them to relay to me what they were saying.

"...we cannot make her know. Nobody should know. Not even her stupid students. We can drop some hints, however," One masculine voice said.

"We _cannot. _We just absolutely can't, Inoue. Danzou-sama will not be please. He said if we follow the plan perfectly, things will go well." The female said.

"Really, Ona? Isn't that what he said before that bastard Orochimaru captured your sister? Huh? What did Kita's loyalty earn her? Death, that's what," The voice of Inoue sneered.

"Kita was a double spy. She was a greedy bitch and her greed killed her," the Ona woman said, her voice strained with rage.

"You're just saying that coz you're jealous. She was a much better medic and kunoichi than you, and you encouraged her to be a double spy coz you wanted her dead and out of the picture so that Danzou-sama could notice you. I must add, she was a much better fuck too."

This Ona woman slapped the face of the Inoue guy, before storming off. Katsuyu then decided to come back after eavesdropping in their conversation. As she was walking off, Inoue made the mistake of commenting something under his breath.

"At least we did our job and cut off the communication."

At that, I froze, and the shock is what made me realise that my chakra was slowly running out.

What the hell did he mean by cutting off the communication? Was that the reason why Konoha did not receive any help from her allies? What was the relationship between Danzou and Orochimaru? How was he involved in this war?

My head started feeling dizzy, the tell-tale signs of chakra exhaustion.

"You must stop, Sakura. Your chakra is getting dangerously low," Katsuyu-sama said.

"How many shinobi have been healed?" I breathed.

"Most of them have been able to get to the hospital, but there are others who are still in critical condition," she said slowly.

"We must help them all. We can't stop until all of them are saved. We must save as many as possible." I replied, starting to breathe heavy. My throat was dry and painful, but I ignored it to concentrate what was left of my chakra to heal.

I had very little chakra left, and turning it into healing chakra was becoming very difficult.

"Shit," I muttered, feeling a faint coming on. The headache I would have tomorrow would not be good, not to mention the lectures form Shishou, Itachi, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Shizune nee-chan, Ino-pig and Mikoto kaa-chan.

Suddenly, I felt it. Chakra. Warm, relieving chakra. It was a bit menacing, but it's what I needed.

Hey, this chakra is weird. It's orange. It's...

Naruto.

I smiled to myself, making sure I was directing the chakra to those who needed it most through Katsuyu, and when she confirmed that everyone was fine enough to travel, I found it would be an appropriate time to black out now.

**I am sorry. I'm very, very, sorry. My housemates and I are looking for a house to move out, and I've been filling forms, inspecting houses and talking to bitch real estate agents.**

**Nonetheless, here's the update, and I would really appreciate any reviews.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Mendoukusei 30.**

**Now, I believe there's some things I need to clear up. Some of you are telling me my previous chapter was short. It was not. It was more or less the same length as all the others. My chapters go according to word count, not according to how long you're gonna scroll to get to the bottom of the page. My word count is normally between about 2100-2500 words on average. I might write three paragraphs, but if they hit my average word count, I stop. Clear?**

**Now, moving on.**

I woke up and found myself staring at a white ceiling.

I sighed, before a golden yellow head popped into my immediate line of sight. "Sakura-chan? Are you awake yet? Are you alright?"

"Keep it down, you idiot. Forehead needs her rest. I thought Tsunade-sama explained to you how low her chakra was. She probably has the mother of all headaches right now." I heard a very familiar anger-induced and concerned shriek.

"But I need to see her. She'd been out for a day and I've missed her," I heard the pouty yell.

"Be quiet, dobe. She's the medic, not you. And anyway, just how sure are you Sakura wants to see you?" I heard a familiar low baritone growl. I smiled, quite amused at how this conversation was going.

An incredulous sigh. If it wasn't for the headache I was having, I would have laughed. Hearing Ino-pig and Naruto argue was always hilarious.

"We've all missed her, Naruto, and just like you, she risked her life trying to save countless others. Unlike you, however, she doesn't have a tailed beast that gives her unlimited chakra supplies," Ino said, no doubt with a smile on her face.

"So when do we get to see her then?"

"Later, Naruto. I promise you that when it's time to visit her, you will know."

It was quiet after that, and with a full blown grin on my face, I drifted off to

I woke up a second time, and this time there was a messy, silver head in my immediate line of sight. My sensei, lazy and aloof look on his face as usual was peering down at me. For anyone who didn't know him well, they would think he was used to seeing people like this. After all, he _is _the renown Copy Nin, who has been ANBU Captain twice in his life, and his masochistic tendencies well known in Konoha, having to be dragged half dead by his teammates back home more often than not from missions, and _still _refusing to go to the hospital, despite his thoroughly mashed up condition.

I however, was his student, and one of his closest friends and I knew him very, very well. Because he was stoic most of the time, he hid his worry well enough, but the fact that he was _in the hospital, alone, willingly _told me he was worried shitless. His porn was nowhere in sight, and his hands were crammed so deep in his pants pockets, no doubt balled into fists, I was waiting for them to rip through start sticking out from down there anytime.

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei," I croaked, wincing at the sound of my voice. God, I really loathed chakra exhaustion. Why was it always the idiots that got the unlimited chakra supplies?

_Because they are idiots and totally refuse to acknowledge their limits and would therefore die without said unlimited chakra supply to increase their chances of survival,_ my inner grumbled, no doubt her head pounding as well.

"Sakura," he said gently, handing me a glass of water for my throat. I took it gently, relaying my thanks with a small smile before gulping down said water as if it was an elixir of life.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. It was just chakra exhaustion. A couple of more hours of rest and I'll be fine." I replied, feeling much better after the water.

The wonders of hydration.

He narrowed his eye, looking right at me, and I could tell he could tell I was hiding something. Damn sneaky geniuses.

"There is something on your mind," he said quietly, "and that something is really eating at you."

I sighed. "I think Shishou and the rest deserve to hear this as well," I replied, knowing that he's caught me.

He walked out, and few seconds later he walked back in, with a small party of shinobi trailing behind.

Shishou, Jiraiya-sama, Neji, Morino Ibiki, Yamanaka Inoichi, Itachi, Shikamaru, his dad (Shikaku), Neji, Hinata, Naruto , Sasuke-kun and Shisui.

"Sakura-chan! How are you doing? Are you okay? D'you need anything? I could get you some ramen. Baa-chan, does she need any more operation stuff? Check her chakra. Oi, Itachi-Taichou, can you like, peck her on the forehead or something? Maybe you need-"

"Shut it, dobe. Kakashi already told you this is serious. Stop being an idiot and listen."

Kakashi-sensei sighed, before going to the back and standing next to Itachi.

"What's up, Sakura?" Shihsou asked me.

I dropped my gaze, staring at my hands on my laps under the covers. I had no idea where to start. I opened my mouth for a moment, then closed it again.

Suddenly, I felt a large hand on my back and another on my hand. I looked up and saw Kakashi-sensei and Itachi on either side of me, the two singularly most powerful shinobi in the village, as well two very special people to me.

"Just start from the beginning," Itachi said softly.

"I was dealing with the mess that was the hospital, because of all the casualties, both civilian and shinobi. I wanted to hurry up and come to the field and help as much as I could. I got there and met Shikamaru, who led me to where the injured were," I paused, swallowing and remembering how bad it looked, seeing all those shinobi laying there, groaning from their injuries, with little to no hope of surviving.

"I summoned Katsuyu-sama, and told her to split up so that I could heal as many of the injured as I could without wasting any more time. Just the way Shihsou did, all those times during the invasions of Pein and Madara. I didn't think I'd have the chakra to pull it off, but I had to do something because the situation was so bleak and the medics that were already there looked so lost and helpless, I had to reassure them that it would be just fine, even if I wasn't too sure myself."

By this time, I was choking and hiding it using hiccups. Hinata came to join me at the base of my bed, and her gentle look encouraged me to go on.

"From then on, all I did was heal. I had no idea what was going on, so I just concentrated on healing. It was then that I saw a shinobi and a kunoichi. The guy was called Inoue and the girl was Ona, or something. They were saying something about not telling you anything, Shihsou, and at first I was lost. The guy looked at me for a bit, and when he noticed I was looking at him he immediately looked the other way, as if he was scared I would know something by merely glancing at him." I refrained from adding the insults he said about her.

"I had Katsuyu-sama send one of her clones there to try and eavesdrop. These guys seemed to know Kita, and apparently Ona is her sister. They seemed to know why she was captured by Orochimaru, and they said something about her being a double spy. They were also talking about Danzou," at this I realised something. Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya-sama and Shishou noticed too.

Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke-kun subtly stiffened.

It was no secret at all that the Uchiha clan and Shimura Danzou were enemies. He had always wanted the Sharingan for himself, and the Uchiha clan, particularly Itachi and Shisui had always challenged him to dare. Because they were the more powerful members, he never tried anything dodgy, but given the chance, he would annihilate them just for the sake of their eyes.

"What about Danzou?" Kakashi-sensei asked carefully.

I swallowed, but ploughed on. "I think they are working for him. These guys, including Kita were working for Danzou for the detriment of Konoha. Kita must have been a double agent for him and Kumo. Then why was she done away with by Orochimaru? And what does that Danzou freak have to say about all this?"

The room was deadly silent.

"Then the Inoue guy said something about cutting off communication."

Immediately I finished that statement, I saw Itachi's eyes narrow.

"Could that explain why we never had any help from our allies even though we declared it an emergency?" Jiraiya-sama mused.

It was silent again.

"Sakura," Shihsou said. "I'm discharging you right now. Go home and rest, and I mean just that. _Rest, _because I will know if you wouldn't have rested." At this, she stared pointedly at Itachi, who smirked at her, then at me, making my face turn beet red.

"By Tomorrow Mei and the Sand Siblings should be here. We're a week late in getting Kurenai back. Asuma is a bit calmer now, that he's had quite a number of Oto shinobi to obliterate. The rest of you, go rest up. Scram."

Everyone disappeared, except Itachi.

Both of them immediately turned to me.

I sighed.

"What the hell is wrong with you, brat? As much as your chakra control is the envy of almost every other shinobi, you know you don't have the biggest reserves. How can you go pulling stunts like the one you pulled yesterday? What if Naruto wouldn't have shown up? What would you have done? It's not healthy for you at all, and you should know that being such a high calibre medic yourself," Shihsou begun yelling, as Itachi merely looked at us.

"That was not wise do you, my queen. You should not be able to risk your life like this," Itachi added, in a much more calm and sedate manner than his Hokage.

"I'm sorry," I apologised slowly, and immediately Shishou realised I was not getting into a yelling fit with her, her eyes immediately softened and she came to the other side of me.

"What I couldn't have gotten there in time, Shihsou, Itachi? What if I never got there when I did? How many shinobi would have died? These guys probably cut off the communication to the call of escape we so desperately needed what if I wouldn't have heard all that? What would we do now?" I asked, very, very scared.

"Sakura, relax. You did a great job out there, stop doubting yourself. Yes, we lost, but this is a war, Sakura, and it's not the first war you've fought in. We lost this battle, and we will lose many others in the future. This is a war, and sacrifices have to be made," Shihsou said gently.

"Not to mention, you gathered some very important information for us. We now know for sure that Danzou is involved in this, and we will make sure he pays for it. You did an excellent job, my queen. Think of how easy this investigation is going to be for Shisui and the police force," Itachi added, taking my hands into his and rising them to those sinful lips of his, kissing them gently.

All I could manage was a shaky smile. "After we rescue Kurenai-san tomorrow, I will see to it that on behalf of all the elite shinobi in the village, I will relay our utmost appreciation to you," Itachi said, eyes immediately dropping his half lidded gaze to my lips.

I blushed again, before nodding.

"Now, go home and get some rest, both of you. Tomorrow at dawn I expect you in my office, prepared and ready to go into Otogakure no Sato and rescue Kurenai. Shisui, get your sneaky ass in here now." Shishou finished by yelling.

Shisui walked in, his hand rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, clear evidence that he was listening in.

"I want you to tell your force to start thorough investigations of this Inoue and Ona person. Both of them are medics, and tell them they are authorised to use the records of Yamamoto Kita." She ordered.

Shisui nodded, before flickering himself out of there.

I got out of bed, and walked to the reception of the hospital reception, for Shishou to discharge me. Itachi and I then headed out and begun to walk at a comfortable pace to the Uchiha compound.

It was gonna be a long week or so, and I was not entirely looking forward to it.


	31. Chapter 31

**Mendoukusei 31.**

Dawn.

It was a crisp, fresh morning, and I could see the outlines of the sun from the Top of the Hokage Mountain, orange rays that promised a brilliant day to come.

It was a beautiful sight.

I was, predictably, in Tsunade Shishou's office, together with the rest of my team and Kakashi-sensei's team. Shizune nee-chan was standing behind the Hokage's chair, and the Hokage herself was nowhere in sight.

Naruto's eyebrow was twitching, a habit acquired from Sasuke-kun, and his patience was clearly running out.

"Mou, where the hell is baa-chan? We have to get going already, dattebayo. I'm sure Gaara and Kankurou and Temari and big boobs Mizukage-chan are gonna be here soon. Kurenai-sensei needs us." He yelled, in his usual loud way.

"Shut _up _dobe. It's freaking dawn and some of us are still in the process of waking up. Don't be so loud." Sasuke-kun grumbled. I, on the other hand, was more concerned about other things.

"Big boobs Mizukage-chan?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in his direction. "She's Godaime Mizukage-sama, Naruto. That's her title."

"Ne, Sakura-chan, but she's got big boobs, and she's hot," he replied, trademark perverted grin on his face.

Jiraiya-sama had influenced him too much, it seemed. It really made me wonder whether Yondaime was such a pervert as well. I should have a word with Kakashi-sensei about it.

His gaze then promptly dropped to _my _chest, and he was practically salivating.

"Yours are an awesome size too, Saukra-chan, but maybe when you grow up a little more, you can also ha-"

"I _suggest, _Naruto-kun, you immediately drop and forget about that line of thought. If you don't, however, I can assure you that when you get back, you will spend a minimum of four weeks in the hospital, if someone realises early enough of your dire situation and comes to get you," I heard a cold, quiet voice from my left.

We all turned around and came face to face with Itachi, his sharingan activated and his crimson eyes narrowed. His gaze was extremely intense, and he had directed it right at Naruto. I could practically feel the jealousy roll off him in _waves. _It was pretty obvious he was not _suggesting _anything_ at all._

Naruto's blue eyes widened in sheer terror, and he backed away from me, gulping and sweating. "I'm sorry, Itachi-taichou. It won't happen again," he apologised hastily, before promptly diving to hide behind Shisui.

I smirked. This was turning out to be a very interesting morning.

The door suddenly burst open, and Shishou stumbled in, in a very grumpy mood.

She immediately looked up and growled when she saw all of us standing there.

"What the hell? Seriously, are you guys human? What are you doing in my office?" she snarled at us, obviously not amused at being woken up so early.

It was a well kept secret between the shinobi elite of Konoha that Godaime's laziness was every inch as legendary as her strength, temper and medical skills. Was she kind of randomly related to the Naras perhaps? Maybe on her mother's side?

"I find no inclination whatsoever to wake up so bloody early. And where the hell are those Suna brats and Mei?"

"Ne, ne, Tsunade no baa-chan, what took you so long? Were you still sleeping? You're so freaking lazy, dattebayo. Sandaime no jii-chan was always-"

"Eh? What are you getting at, gaki?" shouted Shishou, who was slowly getting infuriated at what Naruto was saying, stood up, smacking the palms of her hands on her desk, effectively cracking it.

Shizune nee-san and I sighed at the same time. How many desks had she gone through this month? She needed to get a metal one, what with the number of wooden desks she was always cracking and breaking apart.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Gaara, Kankurou and Temari walked in.

"Kazekage-sama," Itachi greeted politely, on behalf of all of us. He nodded at Kankurou and Temari, again on our behalf.

Gaara nodded at us all. He looked around before looking directly at Shishou.

"Gaara. You made it, dattebayo." Naruto yelled, genuinely happy to see his friend again. Gaara looked at him and smiled.

"Yoooosh. Now we go to that place snake bastard's place and get back Kurenai-sensei."

"We must wait for the Mizukage, Naruto. When she arrives, we should go over the plan again before leaving," Gaara told Naruto quietly.

Naruto suddenly quietened and relaxed. Gaara was one of the very few people Naruto would listen to, other than myself, Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya-sama and occasionally Shishou.

A few minutes later, Jiraiya-sama walked into the office, then a very flowery and very feminine scent followed.

"Tsunade darling. It's been a while hasn't it? How's the war on your front been going; other than the kidnapping? That's quite awfully dreadful. I'm here now, we can go get her. Yuuhi Kurenai was her name, yes?"

"Dammit," I heard Gemna's muffled voice, as he, Shisui, Sasuke-kun and Naruto's hands immediately went to their noses to control the nosebleeds. Kakashi-sensei didn't move; his mask did the job well enough for him. Going by the way the darkened spot on said mask where his nose was though, I could tell he too was fighting valiantly against his nose bleed.

Itachi showed no outward signs of being affected by the Mizukage's flamboyant beauty, but the subtle way his jaw hardened, and the not so subtle way he had clenched his fists gave him away.

Kankurou kept rubbing the paint streak under his nose. Gaara was the only one otherwise unaffected.

Anko was right. All Konoha shinobi were perverts.

This time, it was Shishou who sighed, grumbling something along the lines of bloody perverted shinobi under her breath.

"Well, you know the drill. ANBU teams Kakashi and Itachi are going to go to the Oto fronts and cause a little distraction. Mei, Gaara, Kankurou and Temari are then going to go into the lair, find Kurenai and take her out. They will travel for a bit, while Teams Kakashi and Itachi keep Orochimaru and his fellow retards busy, just to be on the safe side. Everybody will then retreat, and we'll all come back here. Agreed?"

We all nodded, understanding the plan.

"Off you go then."

With that, we were out of there.

We were sprinting in the forest, on our way to Oto in dead silence. What if Orochimaru had already done something to Kurenai-sensei? What if she had already lost her child?

_Asuma-sensei's child?_

I gulped, absolutely not wanting to finish that train of thought.

Though both of them were capable enough to get more children, if, Kami-sama forbid, the lost this one, it was obvious to all the Asuma-sensei would go absolutely _apeshit. _Quite honestly, I wouldn't put it past him to hunt down that snake bastard himself and just remind him how utterly awesome the Sarutobi clan is. I have sparred with the man when he is in a feral mood, and if Kakashi-sensei had not removed me from his immediate line of sight when he did, I'd have lost a finger or two from my left arm.

His chakra control was _superb, _his aim deadly, and his killing intent in the league of Kakashi-sensei. When he says he will concentrate his chakra to be thin and sharp, it _will _be _thin and sharp. _

I shuddered.

"Hey, kiddo, don't worry too much. She'll be fine. That's why we've got you here," I heard a calming voice to my right. I turned and came face to face with Gemna, senbon dangling from the right corner of his mouth.

"I know," I replied softly. "It's not her I'm worried about. Asuma-sensei..." I gulped. He could be so scary.

Gemna chuckled. "Yeah, Asuma can be seriously scary. He's jounin for a reason, you know. I don't think it will get to that stage, though," he reassured me.

I nodded and before long we were leaving the peaceful forests that was Konoha into the much more gloomy, dead grounds that were Oto. Kakashi-sensei, who was the overall leader of our massive team immediately stopped.

With characteristic speed, he did his hand signs and hit the ground with his palm.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

His eight ninken appeared from the pouf of smoke.

"We split up here. Mizukage-sama, Gaara-kun, Kankurou and Teamri will be led by my ninken to where Kurenai is. The rest of us head to the front and casue some commotion."

Mizukage-sama and her team turned to leave, but before that, she turned to to Kakashi-sensei and Itachi, gave them flirtatious winks, then joined Gaara-kun, Temari and Kankurou who had already left.

Naruo, Gemna and Shisui promptly pouted.

I rolled my eyes, before we disappeared from there.

We travelled for a little more, before I heard a yell from one of the Oto shinobi.

"Oi...Konoha shinobi have been spotted. Konoha shinobi have been spotted, we need-"

"Shanarooooo!" I yelled, pumping chakra into my fists, punching the ground and watching as it broke apart, particles hitting the air, dust obscuring visibility and causing absolute destruction and chaos.

I looked up smirking, as my teammates disappeared in the seven or so seconds of said confusion to cause even more chaos. I could hear the incoherent yells of the Oto shinobi, clearly panicking.

"Showtime," I muttered, and I disappeared into the fray as well.

By the time the dust cleared, all the Oto shinobi that had been placed at the front of this base were dead. There were others coming, which was the plan. The more they sent their forces to us, the more they weakened their defence at the main place where Orochimaru was, and the easier it would be to rescue Kurenai-sensei.

We fought for what seemed like hours, ploughing through the Oto shinobi, when the snake bastard himself and his protégé appeared. Going by the fierce scowl on his face, he was not in the least bit amused.

I could not help it. I smirked. I think I had a deathwish.

"Hello, Orochimaru," Itachi greeted, lilting voice mocking. "You have finally decided to join us, I believe."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, and he was releasing quite the killing intent.

To be honest, I'd never seen the snake sannin so pissed off. He was a kage-level shinobi, and I really did not want to face him at the moment. I think he was so pissed because of the mocking way Itachi greeted him. In normal circumstances, he was the one that did the taunting.

"Are you ready to fight? Or perhaps you're mulling over an experiment gone wrong?" Itachi continued taunting him.

"Really, Orochimaru-_sama, _do not look so upset. Your followers were mediocre at best. No need to feel anything for them. Or are you that hopeless at character judgement? Sandaime-sama always said you were a genius. Has your intellect reduced, or perhaps all those experiments you have tried on yourself have caused early senility?"

With this, Orochimaru snapped, and lunged at Itachi, who easily dodged and got into a very dangerous fight with him. Kakashi-sensei sighed, before he decided he would face Kabuto, and begun his battle with the medic. The rest of us continued pounding the Oto nin into the ground, as per our mission.

Another long moment passed, before we saw a little flash of brown and blue. Pakkun had just zoomed past, meaning the Mizukage and her team had successfully retrieved and escaped with Kurenai-sensei. That was the signal to haul our asses out of there.

We went to get Itachi and Kakashi-sensei, and when we arrived to where they were fighting, I was almost suffocating. Their chakras were stifling, and clearly none of them were holding back.

"Oi," Naruto yelled, and that was enough to get their attention. Immediately, they turned and started sprinting in our direction.

"Go," Kakashi-sensei ordered and we were off.

After hours of travelling, we got to Konoha late in the evening, tired, dirty and happy. We had completed our mission in a day. _A day. _We all gathered in Shihsou's office, and I was looking at Kurenai-sensei. She was fine, just a little weak. Then I noticed something.

"Kurenai-sensei," I asked her, as she turned her eyes to me. "Waht happened to your child?"

She smirked. "Well, Sakura, there was no child," she replied, feeling smug.

I was stunned into silence.

"B-b-b-b-but you being kidnapped by the snake bastard, us scared that he'd do shit to you, Asuma-sensei beating everyone..." Naruto mumbled, every inch as shocked as most of us in the room.

Except Kakashi-sensei, Itachi, Shikamaru, Neji and Jiraiya-sama.

My eyebrow twitched. The vein in my temple was very nearly popping.

"Actually, that was my mission. We just needed you guys to come over because then it would be faster."

"So ASuma-sensei lied, and you all decided this would be abrilliant plan and went along with it?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, trickery is an excellent skill to have as a shinobi," Kakashi-sensei drawled, smirking at me.

Gnashing my teeth together, I bowed stiffly. "Escuse me."

Smashy smashy time.


	32. Chapter 32

**Mendoukusei 32.**

"Sakura, let me explain."

"NO!"

I was sparring, or rather, seriously taking it upon myself to obliterate one of the Uchiha training grounds, and obliterate I did. The place was a mess. All the trees had been felled and turned into splinters. The ground was broken apart, parts of it jutting out, and large craters and fissures were everywhere. There was absolutely no trace of green anywhere, as all greenery was either destroyed or covered in dirt.

A number of Uchiha Police Force members had come to see what was going on, but stopped dead in their tracks when they saw me flatten an acre of ground with my foot. They turned back to call Shisui, who in turn called Fugaku otoo-san, who called Itachi, who called Kakashi-sensei, who called Shishou.

"_How dare you? _How could you lie like that to us, Shishou? Do you know how risky that was?" I screamed, tears streaming down my face as I charged toward her, chakra glowing on my fist. She dodged the last second as I hit the ground, so hard this time that a boulder flew through the air. Tremors could be heard all the way to the civilian district, I was sure. I kicked it, immediately breaking it up. I saw Shisui gulp.

"Sakura, LISTEN TO ME!" Shishou yelled, punching the already destroyed ground herself, making it even more unstable. I kicked, to negate the effect. I looked at her, the anger, the _hurt _evident on my face, and her features softened immediately.

I was angry, upset and hurt. Asuma-sensei, I'd heard, was hiding somewhere, not wanting to come anywhere near me.

I dropped to the ground, my knees hitting the dirt hard. The tears flowed, and I let them.

"Sakura, I...look, on behalf of all ANBU Captains, Asuma and Kurenai, I apologise. We had to do this. Surely you understand this would not have worked if we'd have told anyone else, because you all would have refused," Shishou said softly, her hand on by back tentatively.

"Gee, Shishou. I wonder why," I replied back sarcastically, my voice slightly cracked because of the tears.

She ignored my blatant rudeness and sighed. "That aside," -I glared- "We've received very important information that's going to end this was as fast as possible. If only you would stop destroying this training ground and head back to my office, we can get started," she told me.

Giving a shaky sigh, I nodded and stood up. Kakashi-sensei's shoulders sagged in relief, and this small action communicated to everyone else that there would be no more smashy smashy in the near future.

"Can we just have it here? I'm tired, and I really don't think I have the strength to teleport to your office, Shishou."

"Fine," she said grudgingly. She turned to one of her ANBU guards. "Go tell the jounin in my office to get here. They have permission from Uchiha-" at this point, she pointedly stared at Fugaku otoo-san -"so they need not to worry. Tell them to get here as soon as possible."

The ANBU disappeared, and I crossed my legs and sat down in a much more comfortable position.

About fifteen minutes later, Hiyashi-sama, Hinata, Neji, Shikamaru, Jiraiya-sama, Shizune, Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei had joined us.

Kurenai-sensei looked apologetic, whereas Asuma-sensei has strategically positioned himself next to Shisui, Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya-sama and Itachi, four of the more powerful shinobi. I glowered hell at the both of them. Even Fugaku otoo-san and Hiyashi-sama were looking a little more apprehensive than they should.

"Well, now that we're all here, and my apprentice has decided to stop destroying this training ground, we can proceed. Kurenai, what did you find out?"

"Danzou and the Raikage are working together to overthrow you, Hokage-sama. I also heard that Danzou had asked some shinobi in Konoha to aid him, but they refused. He only has his ROOT forces to aid him, and maybe some Kumo shinobi. The Raikage wants to get revenge from the War. Konoha is the one that annihilated Uchiha Madara, so our village obviously got more praise and aid from all daimyos than any other village, and the Raikage was not at all amused at this outcome, claiming that everyone should the get the same, since we all suffered in the war. I also assume that he is quite sore about how the Yondaime was constantly humiliating his forces all those years ago, so he's in this for revenge. Iwa just hate Konoha, really. They are in this for the fun." She paused to let all that sink in.

"How does that medic that was killed by Orochimaru fit into all of this?" Shisui asked.

"Asuma tells me you already know this. Kita, the medic that was killed, was a double spy. She was spying for Orochimaru and Danzou. Danzou suspected there was something off, but because she was such a brilliant kunoichi, he didn't want to take action against her yet. Orochimaru, however, realised that this status made it harder for her to do her duties to him effectively; partly because of Danzou's suspicion, and partly because of her duties at the hospital. When she slipped and Sakura realised she was about to harm a Hyuuga, he knew we would act immediately, and decided he'd have to eliminate her."

"How are we going convict these Ona and Inoue characters without proof?" Shishou mumbled.

At this Itachi smirked deviously, and we suddenly heard his smooth tenor. "Perhaps I should inform Ibiki and Inoichi-san to...convince a confession out of them?"

"Hmph," Shishou snorted, eyeing Itachi. "Convince indeed. Fine. Just don't break them."

"How are we going to deal with Iwa and Kumo then?" Hiyashi-sama asked, to which warranted Fugaku otoo-san to look at him as if he was an idiot.

"Really, Hyuuga, why must you ask such obvious questions? Of course we are going to have to confront them and defeat them," Fugaku otoo-san said.

Hiyashi-sama looked at him with a mildly irritating look on his face. "Was I asking you, Uchiha? Do keep your mouth shut until you are required to talk."

"What did you-"

"Oh shut up, you bloody brats," Shishou interrupted their spat. "This is obviously not the time. We have two traitors to get rid of, a snake sannin to annihilate and two kage's asses to beat. Save your spats for much later on the future, preferably when I'm not there to listen to them. And Uchiha, deal with this training ground. I don't want my jounin complaining of your clansmen harassing them to leave the normal training grounds because some Uchiha wants to practise some freaky genjutsu. That's the reason my grandfather gave you your own training grounds in the first place," she muttered, disgruntled.

Fugaku otoo-san bristled as Hiyashi-sama smirked. Hinata sighed.

"Pray tell, why should I ensure that, Hokage-sama? After all, it is _your _apprentice that proceeded to annihilate our training ground and leave it in such a mess, a skill which _you _taught her, I believe," he ground out through gritted teeth.

Shishou sighed, before getting up. "Because, brat, she's _your _daughter-in-law to-be, and she'll be popping out heirs for your son soon." At this point, my face turned a deep tomato red. "I really hope one of them gets that legendary strength and chakra control of hers as well, so that they can be a little monster and be punching idiots like Shisui here through walls, maybe even Sasuke too for good measure, considering he's such a little douche for having no respect for his elders," she added, muttering loud enough for all of us to hear.

Shishou, and everyone else walked away, leaving Itachi, Figaku otoo-san, who was fuming and myself in the training field. I was very, very humiliated.

"I'm so sorry," I muttered softly, burying my very red face in my hands.

Fugake otoo-san turned to me, face wiped blank of all emotions. "Your mentor has absolutely no respect for anyone," he said smoothly. He sounded calm, but if you really listened, you could hear the undertones of sheer rage in his voice.

Of course, this was only possible if you had an Uchiha in your team from genin-hood to jounin-hood.

Despite my embarrassment, I nodded in agreement. "No, she does not. She barely has any respect for her elders, how d'you expect her to respect anyone that's younger than her?"

Without replying, he did a simple teleportation jutsu and was out of there.

I suddenly remembered that I had to have some words with Itachi. I glared at him, and he simply sighed before nodding, immediately understanding.

"I absolutely cannot believe you guys. How can you do such risky things without telling any of us? And you ANBU Captains, I know you're directly answerable to her, but aren't you also supposed to give her opinions about some of these things? You're the most powerful shinobi in the village, dammit. All of you. You're not supposed to allow her to make such overly risky decisions. Oh my God, what if the council would have heard? Even Shizune nee had no idea, did she? Good Kami-sama, you guys are just unbelievable. Even if it's getti-"

I was silenced when I felt his lips on mine, and he only wanted to stop my rants. As usual, I could never resist him whenever he kissed me, so all further thoughts of grumbling left my head immediately, and I wrapped my hands around his neck to savour said kiss.

"I am sorry, my queen, but this is a war, and some of these high risk missions must be done. Look how much we accomplished. We are now most likely to end this pointless war," he told me, his rich lilting voice causing me to feel things I should not at the moment.

"But you lied to us," I said, just as gently, and pouted for good measure too.

He smiled tenderly, his gorgeous eyes softening. I think I'm the only one he's ever smiled at like that. "You're such a child."

"Ita-kun, this is serious. You guys lied, and that was too big of a risk. The odds of it going wrong were very high," I shrieked, crossing my arms on my chest.

He sighed. "Yes, we lied to you, and on top of Tsunade-sama's apology, I apologise again, but you must understand that we had to do this. We honestly had no choice in the matter at the time. If we did, we wouldn't have done that. In the long run, it has given us the advantage. We have considerably weakened Oto's forces and gained valuable information on the enemy."

Dammit. Why does he always have to be so damn reasonable? Bloody sneaky genius.

"Fine, I forgive you. If Mikito-kaa-chan scolds us for being late for dinner, it's all your fault," I said, walking away to head for the Uchiha district.

I heard him sigh again, and I knew that I'd won. I couldn't help but smirk.

**Hey guys. If you haven't noticed, this fic is about to end. I know, sad, but all good things must come to an end. I donno how many more chapters, but it should be three at the most, five if I'm really stretching it. So, yeah.**

**Don't worry though, I have another fic coming up after this one. I haven't thought of a name yet, but I'll definitely tell it to you when I do.**

**Thanks a million for the reviews. I really appreciate them. :D**

**(that actually means I'd like more. *hint hint* *nudge nudge*)**


	33. Chapter 33

**Mendoukusei 33.**

I was smirking smugly.

Shishou eyed me, slightly irritated. "You've been spending too much time with that Uchiha brat."

My smirk widened into a sweet smile, and Shishou's brown eyes narrowed. "Which one exactly, Tsunade Shishou? They are all brats to you," I replied.

"Hmph," she snorted, not at all impressed at my smart ass answer. "Just go back to the Torture and Interrogations building. Inoichi and Ibiki said the needed you," she said, waving me out with her hand. "Let me have a look at these records."

The records Shishou was looking at were hospital records. These were records about all practicing medical nin, from chuunin up until ANBU level, Yamamoto Ona and Takabashi Inoue were well renown jounin and ANBU medics respectively, and I was glad Shishou made Shizune nee and myself Head of the hospital for non-field and field medics respectively, meaning we had to go through and approve of every single procedure every shinobi went through. Kami-sama knows how many of our shinobi would be disadvantaged because of the traitors in the hospital.

After the whole Yamamoto Kita thing, everyone, at least, everyone of importance, knew just how easy it was to die in the hospital, and that's why conspirators always looked for med nin who were fickle enough to be bribed with promises and payment to betray their villages.

We have had Ibiki and Inoichi-san go through every single medic in Konoha just for protocol's sake, because we already know our traitors. All we need to do is get a confession from them. These guys, we're assuming, are as well trained as Kita was, and have mental resilience as good as the Uchiha clan themselves (though it's well agreed upon in all medical elite circles that the Uchiha are as resilient as they are because their mentality is greatly lacking. Sasuke-kun and Shisui are perfect examples of this). We told all the medics that if they do not corporate, we shall be forced to employ the sharingan on them, and had Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke there to emphasise the point. This was again all for protocol's sake.

These records were normally very hard to get, because most, if not all, medics kept their own records in their heads. Telling some of them, like Shizune nee to reproduce such records on paper and you'd have a file looking either like Hiyashi-sama's; ridiculously organised to the point of the _room number _that certain check-ups were done in, or something like Kakashi-sensei's; an utter nightmare where there are question marks at points that are supposed to have very, _very _important bits of information, meaning you have to hunt down said shinobi (which can be unreasonably difficult, more often than not) and ask them said information. All in all, it was a rather difficult task to accomplish, considering the time restraints, but with a little aggression, intimidation and the occasional right bribe to threat ratio I got it all done in the impressive span of six hours. I was extremely proud of myself.

Maybe Naruto was right. Shishou _may _have rubbed off a little too much on me. That may also explain the extremely smug look on my face at the moment.

I walked down the streets of Konoha as if I owned them, feeling very good about myself, before Shisui flickered in front of me, grabbed me, and flickered away with me.

Now I understood why Shisui was universally feared as Shunsin no Shisui. Even with his chakra levels dangerously low and his extreme exhaustion evident, he could still execute his flicker technique so fast, that even Itachi, a _master of the sharingan _could not follow it.

"Shisui," I said, concerned at the bags under his eyes and his droopy state. He was so chakra deprived that he was struggling to activate his sharingan, an anomaly for a shinobi as competent as he, and he was panting.

He may be one of a kind, but he was still _Uchiha _Shisui, and even one of a kind Uchiha _never _pant.

"Oh my God, you bloody idiot. You're exhausted. What the hell d'you think you're doing? Don't you dare activate your kekkei genkai, or I _will _black you out," I shrieked, my worry very evident in my voice.

He looked up at me and managed a haggard smirk. "I'm way beyond exhaustion, Sakura. Had to deal with those two traitors. They were escaping. I had to use my sharingan to get them back. Had to control the both of them at the same time. They were being assholes, and the strain made me remember the death of my parents. Activated my mangekyou then, grief was too much. Couldn't take it, plus all the flickering around looking for Itachi-chan," he stopped, too exhausted to even go on.

My heart tugged at his grief. He was trying to hide it, but I could read it in his voice and his body language. After all, I am a medic, and I've had an Uchiha on my team from graduation from the academy, not to mention I am engaged to the heir of their clan. I've learnt to read their body language.

"Please..."he wheezed before he blacked out.

Suddenly, the door of one of the interrogation chambers was slammed open, Morino Ibiki and Yamanaka Inoichi stumbling out, cold sweats on their foreheads. Then I felt it; the heavy, dark, menacing aura, rolling out of the room in _waves. _It was thick and suffocating, and I gulped when I realised whose it was.

Not wanting to let go of Shisui, I immediately sent an ANBU to look for Gemna, and the second he arrived I handed Shisui over to him, telling him to take him over to the Uchiha district. I would have to handle this.

I gathered what was left of my courage, and walked into the interrogation room that had _Morino Ibiki _terrified to the point of sweating. I gulped, cold, hard fear running up my spine, and gripping me hard to the very depths of my being.

The room was a mess. Broken desks and chairs, charred walls, shattered windows, and black flames. _Burning _black flames. I looked at where the murderous intent was coming from, and my eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, I'm sure, in a mixture of shock and sheer terror.

Yamamoto Ona was on the floor, blacked out in what looked like a very bad case of psychological damage. She was badly bruised, physical violence no doubt inflicted by taijutsu and ninjutsu. Her left knee was so badly shattered, I could see parts of the bone on the floor. Her right arm was badly charred, and it was still bleeding sluggishly, a definite katon injury. Parts of her hair were ripped out, and she had some really nasty looking injuries, particularly on her torso.

Takabashi Inoue, on the other hand, was on being held on the wall by the neck by Itachi. His left shoulder was clearly dislocated, and the way his left foot was dangling told me he had more bones broken in there than he should have. He also had a lot of bruises, most of them brought about by coming into contact with fire. He had blood coming out of all his facial orifices, no doubt the cause of a deadly genjutsu. He was whimpering pathetically.

Itachi on the other hand was just _murderous. _He was emitting such a deadly aura, I could almost see it. His chakra control wasn't as awesome as a medic's normally is, but because his major fighting style is genjutsu, his chakra control skills are well above average. His eyes were blood red, a deep, rich crimson. His mangekyou wasn't spinning fast, like it normally did when he was angry, but it was spinning at a very controlled pace, forward and backward after a select number of spins. He was using his sharingan to utterly control every single trace of chakra in Inoue's body, mind-fucking him completely. If went on doing this, his brain would go on overload, causing a haemorrhage and killing him.

A slow, deadly, painful death.

"Piece of filth," Itachi muttered, finally letting go of the guy and watching him fall on the ground in an ungraceful heap.

"Ita-kun," I whispered fearfully, not even having the courage to go near him in his current state, though I knew he wouldn't deliberately hurt me.

"My queen," he whispered back, trying to get to me. I flinched and instinctively took a step back. I didn't mean to, but I was _terrified._

He finally controlled himself, calming down and deactivating his sharingan. He slowly walked toward me, and when he was close enough I could see the grief and sadness in his eyes, one of the very rare times he showed emotion. He pulled me into his arms for an embrace, and when I wrapped my arms around him, I felt a hot, wet liquid on my neck.

Itachi was _crying._

Without thinking at all, I did a quick teleportation jutsu into our room at the clan head's house, and I held him close to me, as he cried on my shoulder for about fifteen minutes.

I'm a kunoichi, and must therefore be ready for the unexpected, but never, ever, in my life, had I ever thought I'd see my fiancé, _Uchiha Itachi, _one of the most powerful shinobi in the history of Fire Country, cry.

It only went to show that we were all human.

"What's the matter, darling?" I asked him gently, when he stopped sniffling. I wiped the tears from those beautiful onyx eyes of his, and waited for him to begin talking.

"It was Danzou and Orochimaru," he begun, his voice cracking with emotion. "They killed Shisui's parents. They were on a mission. It was during the Third Great Shinobi War. I never fought in it, but Shisui did. They were supposed to go get reinforcements, but ROOT intercepted them. Orochimaru betrayed them. They were outnumbered. They could never have survived. Shisui literally died inside, coming home and finding he had no parents. His father was my Chichi-ue's younger brother, that's why we adopted him. Chichi-ue eventually avenged his otouto's death, and that's why Danzou has never really liked my clan. Chichi-ue and Haha-ue almost annihilated ROOT. They would have too, if Sandaime had not stopped them. This is why Danzou and Orochimaru want to take over the village. Danzou wants to annihilate the Uchiha clan, _my _clan, and Orochimaru wants to be there to gloat about it, because he was never able to get the sharingan. Shisui more or less figured this out with his mind controlling genjutsu, and exhausted himself looking for me to use my mangekyou to dig up more. His genjutsu can read minds, and they were taunting him, telling him he'd never figure anything out. The grief caused him to activate his mangekyou, which took up even more of his chakra, causing his vitality to deteriorate. Shisui, however, is a marvellous shinobi, and he managed to get them to the Torture and Interrogations building, and have Inoichi-san and Ibiki to restrain them. When I got here and saw his state, I could not control myself. They almost destroyed my best friend, and I could not, _would not _let them get away with it. I had to punish them."

He collapsed into my arms again, his shoulders moving up and down as he wept, and I was content to just hold him. I don't think Itachi had ever spoken so much in his life at one go. He needed someone to listen, and I was more than willing to listen as he poured his heart out to me.

Clearly, Itachi and Shisui's relationship went far beyond that of cousins and adoptive brothers. They were so deeply connected, they would die for each other, without thinking twice. No wonder they worked so beautifully together. Their understanding was subconscious, and only someone who could understand such a deep, deep friendship, like Genma, could be able to work with them. He knew his place, and Shisui and Itachi deeply appreciated this.

"Let me go check out Shisui, then we can go and tell Shishou," I told him gently, after he was done weeping.

"Please, tell Gemna to...to come to me."

"I will."

I got to Shisui's room, and told Gemna Itachi needed him.

"He's an emotional wreck at the moment, bawling his eyes out. I think he just needs someone there to listen to him. Do him that one favour, will ya?" I whispered to Gemna before he left.

I took one look at Shisui, and there was really nothing wrong with him. He was simply suffering from chakra exhaustion, and the best remedy for that was rest. I checked on his eyes. They were a little sore, so I passed some chakra to soothe them. Shisui is an Uchiha, and no one could survive pain like the Uchiha clan.

Itachi and Gemna walked in a little later, and they watched Shisui peacefully sleeping.

Itachi's eyes were bloodshot. "I will annihilate them," he said, eerily calmly. "I will see to it that Shimura Danzou and Orochimaru do not live to see another year. I will utterly destroy them, and anything else that they will leave behind. The only way history will remember them is by their deaths. I _will _annihilate them."

Gemna and I shared a look, and we both unanimously agreed that we really, _really _did not want to see nor hear the particular details of those two kills.


	34. Chapter 34

**Yo. **

**I'd like to reinforce some good news and bad news. The bad news is, this is probably the second last chapter of Mendoukusei. The good news is, there's another story muddling itself in my head. It's gonna be called Funny Fates and the rest goes without saying; Itasaku, M rated, humour/romance...etc etc etc. So yeah, just some clarification for those who were asking. **

**Onwards then.**

**Mendoukusei 34.**

I must admit, I was extremely amused at the sheer insanity unravelling in front of me.

We were in Shisui's room in the Uchiha Clan head's home. Itachi eventually calmed himself down into his normally stoic self and headed to the Hokage tower to inform Shishou of everything concerning Takabashi Inoue, Yamamoto Ona, Shimura Danzou and Orochimaru. Against her better judgement, she promptly called in her elite and informed them of what was going on. That was the reason I was sitting at the edge of Shisui's bed and trying my hardest not to just outright laugh.

I don't even know _how _we all ended up in here. We just did. The reason we were here, of course, was to arrange the arrest of Shimura Danzou before Itachi decided to go kill him himself. From there we would organise the final conquest and destruction of Otogakure no Sato, again, before Itachi lost it and went to kill Orochimaru instead. Shisui was the head of the Konoha Police Force, so authority to arrest anyone came only from him.

"Why are always so crammed in the Uchiha household? This is an absolute mess. There isn't even air conditioning. The rooms are not spacious in the least. I really do not understand what Hokage-sama sees in this bloody clan. Utterly distasteful," Hiyashi-sama grumbled, standing next to one of Shisui's many chests of drawers.

"Well, unlike the Hyuuga household, we are not miles out of the village's administrative centre, making us convenient for everyone else, since it's closer to their homes and offices. Why would we need air conditioning when we have such lovely windows? Unlike you, we prefer fresh air, nature's best and not manufactured things. What I fail to comprehend is what Hokage-sama sees in _your _clan_. _At least we have to deal with the police force, what excuse do _you _have?" Fugaku otou-san promptly retorted back.

Itachi and Hinata sighed. This only meant that an argument was about to begin, no doubt a childish one at that.

"Our tracking abilities are greatly revered in the shinobi world, and we have a great deal of influence in Konoha's tracking administration-"

"Which is headed by ANBU-"

"Where my nephew is a Captain-"

"So is my son-"

"He has clan duties as well, meaning he is nowhere near as dedicated as he would like-"

"Well, that only shows his competence, does it not-"

"Would you both just shut the hell up already? It amazes me how the both of you can lead clans with the amount of childishness in your arguments. I've constantly being saying this since I became Hokage and I will keep saying it until I retire; _we don't care. _We don't want to know who's better, who's more competent, who's more sophisticated, whose heir is getting married first, we just don't care. At the moment, we have an arrest and a war to bloody deal with. Save your bickering for some other time, preferably the next lifetime. Jeez, did Hiruzen-sensei and Minato have to deal with this on a daily basis? How the hell did they survive?" Shishou grumbled loudly, as she was dealing with the paper work that came with high level arrests.

"Shisui, how are you doing?" he asked without even turning her head to look at him.

"Well, I'm fine, I guess. Still got a slight headache, but Sakura-chan said I have decent levels of chakra now," he said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"Can you consciously activate your mangekyou?"

At this question, everyone in the room froze.

"Yeah. It kind of hurts at first, but I can do it. That's just because of chakra control though; my eyes are not used to having so much chakra at the same time. I think I can also do amaterasu and tsukiyomi and susanoo. I haven't tried to, of course, but Itachi-chan tells me that going by my chakra colours and abilities, I'm more likely to be best affiliated with susanoo," he said quietly.

Shihsou's lips tuned down into a small frown, before quickly exchanging looks with me.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"Amaterasu, Susanoo and Tsukityomi are like chakra types. You can use all of them, but there's one that's almost perfect for you. This one depends on your chakra colour and your shinobi abilities. Itachi's Tsukiyomi is freakishly powerful because he's a genjutsu type, with cool coloured chakra. Tsukiyomi is a genjutsu, and it works best with cool coloured chakra. If Sasuke-chan develops his, it'll probably be amaterasu, seeing as he's a ninjutsu type with a mix of cool and bright coloured chakra. I'm a taijutsu kind of shinobi, my chakra is bright coloured, meaning it's gonna be Susanoo for me."

"Can you activate it now?" I asked slowly.

He quickly glaced at Itachi and Fugaku otoo-san, and when they gave their approval he nodded once.

Without closing his eyes, he activated his sharingan, crimson bleeding into onyx, and his pupil split into the usual three tomoe. The tomoe spun once, until one of them was at the bottom of his eyeball, and the other two were at the top in a straight line. They then extended to each other, forming a perfect upside down triangle, two points at the top and one point at the bottom. The inside of the triangle was pitch black, with the exception of a small circle in the centre of it, and the rest of his eyeball, which was the characteristic crimson.

I had to admit, that was pretty awesome. Scary, but awesome.

"Any pain in your eyes?" Tsunade Shishou asked? He shook his head.

"Good. You can deactivate it now. You just got your chakra back. We don't want you pointlessly wasting it. Moving onto much more important matters who is going to arrest that bastard?"

Mikito kaa-chan giggled. The Uchiha clan was _definitely _up to no good.

"Do not worry, Tsunade-sama," Itachi begun in that smooth voice of his that said he was absolutely up to no good. "Danzou shall be arrested."

He was even _smirking._

Shishou, knowing better, didn't even bother asking, for the sake of wht was left of her mentality. Doing a quick teleportation jutsu, she was out of there, along with her piles of paper work. Everyone took that as a sign to get lost, and everyone left.

I went to the hospital. Kami-sama knows the paperwork I had to do there.

About an hour or so into my work, I was immediately summoned into the Hokage's office.

What was going on? I thought we all had our daily quota of administrative meetings today.

I got to the office and saw the usual people were there; Kakashi-sensei, Itachi, Shikamaru, Neji and Shizune nee. Shisui was also there, but he was head of the Police Force. Why was he here? Wasn't he arranging Danzou's arrest?

"Operative Haruno, come stand to my left," Shishou ordered. This was definitely official, and I immediately heeded her command.

I looked at Kakashi-sensei, and Icha Icha was nowhere in sight. Shit was seriously going down today.

There was a pouf of white smoke in the middle of the office, and Jiraiya-sama stood there. Without saying a word, he walked toward Shishou's desk and leaned on it. Then it was silent.

There was a sharp knock on the door. "Come in," Shishou ordered.

Shimura Danzou walked in, bandaged face, bandaged arm, walking stick and all. He looked around, and though he was an apparently very accomplished shinobi in his day, I could sense some apprehension.

"Why do I, your humble servant, deserve to be called in by you, Hokage-sama?" he asked politely.

Shishou, who's head was leaning down, looked up. Her eyes were gleaming, and when she put her hands on her desk, she smirked. "Itachi, this is your part, I believe."

"Shimura Danzou," he begun, his smooth, _sexy, _lilting tenor filling the office. "You are under arrest for treason against the Godaime Hokage and against Konohagakure no Sato-"

He disappeared.

Before Itachi even finished, Danzou teleported himself out of there.

The fact that no one flinched told me that this was exactly part of the plan.

"He really is an idiot," Shisui chuckled, as he pushed himself out of the shadows. "Ja na."

"Right guys, get your asses to the gate of the village," Shihsou said, standing up herself.

"Why?" I asked, totally confused.

"Oh, you'll see, Sakura-chan. You'll see, realise and understand when you get there," Kakashi-sensei said, just as cryptic as everyone else before disappearing.

Shaking my head, I decided to humour them. I did my respective seals and headed to the gate of the village as Shishou commanded.

The very moment I appeared at the gate, I felt Naruto's chakra spike, then it disappeared again. I followed its direction, and I found myself standing on the branch of a huge tree. Naruto was crouching, a feral smirk on his face. With the whiskers on his cheeks, he eerily resembled a fox.

From the corner of my eye, I say a gloved hand, senbon through the fingers. Somewhere above me, I saw a flash of silver hair. To my right was long, brown hair, tied at the bottom, before that disappeared as well.

I snorted inwardly. This was supposed to be an ambush. It was time to finish this, and Shishou, being Shishou knew Orochimaru was coming after deliberately sending word that his moles had been revealed.

Itachi and Shisui slid from wherever they were hiding and went to casually stand at the entry of the village, Shisui on the left and Itachi on the right. Itachi was relaxed, one arm crossed under his chest while he had a kunai in the other, spinning on his half-gloved index finger. He was casually leaning against the wall, his left leg bent and the sole of his foot on the wall.

Shisui sat on the ground, cross legged. One of his katana was sheathed in its koshirae on his back while the other one was unsheathed in front of him. He removed a whelp stone from his pocket and begun sharpening it, whistling enthusiastically.

Suddenly, Danzou appeard. He definitely heard Shisui's whistling, because he immediately turned around to face him.

"Finally here. Took you long enough," Shisui said slowly, looking Danzou right in the eye and smirking.

Danzou's eye opened, the dark grey colour showing fear.

"It is considerably tempting to just slit your throat and get it over with, but since you indirectly caused the activation of my mangekyou, it would only be honourable to show it to you before you die, don't you think so?" Shisui went on, sheathing his katana and standing up. The resulting click as the katana entered into place made Danzou jump slightly.

There was a sudden rustle that could be heard, and Oto shinobi begun appearing. They appeared to be in the sixties or so, before Orochimaru himself appeared. He had his hitai-ate on, with the Oto insignia on, and this signified that this was a battle he was taking seriously.

"I believe these are your reinforcements, Danzou? Where are your ROOT operatives?" Itachi asked, lifting himself off the wall and walking straight at Orochimaru, kunai still spinning. He lifted his head, and aimed that devilish smirk of his at Orochimaru.

"It has been a while since we had a decent fight, is it not Orochimaru?" he said softly, making me immediately slam my legs together to stop my liquids from flowing down. I felt the familiar heat of arousal flowing in my lower abdomen, and only biting my tongue in my mouth so hard stopped me from whimpering my pleasure.

I still never understood how Itachi could turn me on so badly when he was addressing someone else.

"What do you want?" Kabuto growled. Itachi and Shisui both eyed him. Itachi sighed.

"Yo, you do realise who you're talking to, Yakushi? You're talking a dude who killed Uchiha Madara. You're talking to a dude who can rip you three new assholes when he's tied, bound and gagged. Yeah, he doesn't even need his hands and legs to kill you. So please, know your place, shut the fuck up and just wait to die already," Shisui muttered, drawing both his katana from his back.

"This is how things shall proceed," Itachi begun once Kabuto shut up. "Your shinobi, as usual, are just a group of desperate missing nin whose skills are greatly lacking, mediocre at best. My and Kakashi-san's teams shall deal with them. Shikamaru and Neji's teams are going to keep guard, making sure that all the villagers inside do not interrupt out little...skirmish. Shisui and I have quite a number of scores to settle with you and Danzou here, thus we shall be your opponents."

Kabuto, who was growing angrier and angrier by the second, let out a vicious yell and lunged himself at Itachi. Before he even took his third step he let out a scream of pain and crumbled to the ground, a senbon sticking out at the lower part behind his neck.

"You know, Yakushi, the kunoichi in my team is one of the most brilliant medics of her generation, and no doubt one of the greatest medics Fire Country has ever had the fortune of producing. She is the one who told me the best way to paralyse someone is to hit them right at the base of the neck where it begins to connect to the rest of the nerves. I would have just paralysed you, but you were being exceptionally annoying. The senbon I've just hit you with is laced with a poison more potent that anything the late Akasuna no Sasori ever created. It was created by another of our brilliant medics, the Godaime Hokage's first apprentice. It's slow acting, and it works by penetrating every single cell in your body. The pain will eventually be too much for you to handle, your blood pressure will hit the roof and you'll either catch a stroke then die of a cardiac arrest, or you'll haemorrhage. In my opinion, you don't deserve such a death, but quite frankly, I don't think you're worth the effort of me standing up to kill you myself." Genma drawled, lounging in a tree next to Kakashi-sensei. I shook my head.

"Ne, Gemna, don't you think that was overkill?" Naruto asked, grimacing in condescending distaste as Kabuto begun writhing in pain.

"Nope. Now, quit yapping and let's go finish up those other bastards."

Thus, the battle begun.

...

It took us about an hour to obliterate the Oto shinobi. They realised that they were fighting for their lives, and they really gave it everything they had. We eventually managed to kill them all and decided to race back to the gates and see how Itachi and Shisui were faring.

Both of them were panting, and Itachi's hair was released from its ponytail. They were covered in blood from head to toe, and they had the occasional cuts and bruises here and there.

It took all the self control I had not to swoon. Itachi looked so damn alluring whenever he was dripping in his enemy's blood. It was kind of a sick turn on for me.

Orochimaru and Danzou on the other hand were worse for wear. They had horrible injuries, and they were definitely more exhausted.

"Shisui, let's finish this," Itachi muttered.

"Yeah, Itachi. Let's."

Itachi was the first. His eyes bled red, forming the sharingan, and the tomoe became bladed, forming his mangekyou. He looked right at Orochimaru, and going by the way the snake bastard's mouth was slightly ajar, he had been caught into the genjutsu. Tsukiyomi, most probably.

"More than one, you have threatened _my_ clan, _my_ blood, _my otouto. _More than once, you have threatened _my_ village, _my_ Hokage, _my_ _pride. _You are a selfish good-for-nothing piece of filth. You will go to whatever ends to achieve whatever it is you want, even if it is at the detriment of others, _especially _if it's at the detriment of others. You called yourself a Konoha shinobi when you _willingly _sacrificed your colleagues, just because you thought you would get something from it. Shodai-sama and Sandaime-sama must be rolling in their graves," Itachi murmured quietly, his anger and sadistic intent very obvious from his voice.

There was a small whimper from Orochimaru, and when Itachi's eyes turned back to their usual onyx, he dropped down on his behind.

"You are not worth killing with genjutsu. Death by genjutsu is too dignified for the likes of you," he finished, before taking a kunai from one of the dead Oto nin and stabbing him in the throat with it. The kunai came out from the other side, because it pinned Orochimaru to the ground, who gurgled blood for a few seconds before he died.

Shisui activated his mangekyou, and called forth his Susanoo. His _complete _Susanoo.

My jaw dropped to the blood stained ground in shock. Itachi told me it took him six months to complete his Susanoo. How could Shisui summon his complete one and this was just about the third time he was activating his mangekyou?

"A little lesson, Danzou. Susanoo takes about a year to develop fully. If you're just really, _really _awesome, you'll probably do it in six months, like Itachi. So, how did I manage to do it so soon? Well, I'm a taijutsu master, meaning Susanoo, the most powerful taijutsu technique in the history of shinobi arts, is what I'm affiliated to. _That _is why I was able to develop it so soon. Or maybe I'm just a really, _really _awesome shinobi. It doesn't matter what you do. No matter what attack you throw at me, I'm almost literally invincible. You killed my parents, murdered them. You then proceeded to take their sharingan and implanted them in yourself, and attempted to use them on me. Really, Shimura, you really have gall," Shisui muttered quietly.

Danzou, by now was exhausted, and was barely able to stand.

"See, I'd have killed you with it, but I think it's too awesome a technique to kill such insignificant pieces of shit like yourself. You deserve a death only people the likes of you should get."

He bent down and took a twig. He pushed chakra to his hands and plunged the twig into his heart. Danzou coughed up a mouthful of blood, before dropping down on his knees, and finally on his face. He was dead within seconds.

Shisui looked at Danzou's corpse, before doing his hand signs and burning it with amaterasu. He glanced up and saw Itachi had done the same with Orochimaru's corpse.

"Ouch, damn stupid powerful jutsu. It freaking hurts to do amaterasu," Shisui grumbled, holding his eye.

"You get used to it, with the appropriate training," Itachi told him, smirking in amusement.

"Well, now that this was is over, I think it would be appropriate to go get wasted. Jan a. Shizune, make up a roster for shinobi to come clean up these corpses. Maybe the chuunin could do it,"Shishou said, as she was walking away, waving her hand in the air nonchalantly.

"T-Tsunade-sama, what about the paper work?" Shizune nee asked, running after her.

Everyone else disappeared one by one. What the hell was going on? We had just concluded a war, there were _dead bodies _right outside the village, and everyone was going on their merry way?

"Shishou, what about Iwa and Kumo?" I asked.

"Meh, they'll get the news eventually," she said. I dropped my head and shook it it.

This was really, honestly quite troublesome.


	35. Chapter 35

**Mendoukusei 35.**

_Epilogue: Three years later._

Really, this was just ridiculous.

I was tired, and I just wanted to go home and sleep and wait for my husband.

"Why, Sakura-chan? This is so soon. Did you consent? He didn't make you, did he? Oh my God, Sakura-chan, you're putting disgusting images in my head," Naruto shrieked, grabbing his messy blonde locks and his blue eyes wide with (unjustified) fear.

"_Shut up, _dobe. You're not making things any better. I _have to _find a wife within the next three months, or Chichi-ue will step in. You have to help me, not scream like an academy school girl," Sasuke-kun growled, his anger brought about more by apprehensive worry that irritation.

I sighed for the umpteenth time, this morning. I looked at my swollen belly, spreading my fingers over it. I was five months pregnant, well into my second trimester. My little boy was doing exceptionally well, and the fact that I was expecting Itachi's son and a few not too subtle threats from Itachi himself got the clan off my back. I was already married, and a lot had happened since the demise of Orochimaru and Shimura Danzou three years ago.

After the war, we cleaned up, burning all the dead corpses and destroying anything that Orochimaru and Danzou left behind; ROOT and Otogakure no Sato. Kumo and Iwa realised that the war was lost, and immediately surrendered. The respective peace treaties were drawn and everyone kept to them, seeing as there was no one to disturb the peace. The Raikage and Tsuchikage realised that for the second time in history, their asses had been handed to them and it was best to accept defeat and just go on with their lives.

"Okay, Sakura, it's your turn. Tsunade-sama will see you now," Shizune nee came out and told me, raising an eyebrow over Naruto and Sasuke-kun's behaviour. Itachi had some clan duties to attend to earlier, and he demanded that my best friends take me to the hospital.

"I don't want anything to happen to you, or the little one, my queen. As much you do not desire it, please, for my peace of mind, just let them accompany you," he had murmured quietly, after I had thrown my bitch fit.

"_Nothing _will happen to me, Ita-kun. I'll be _just fine,_" I screeched back, in my indignation, crossing my hands on my chest and scowling furiously.

He sighed, before pulling me into his arms and resting one of his large, warm hands on my belly. I knew he was only looking out for me, but sometimes his protectiveness just bordered on unreasonable. He, however, was my only weakness. I could never, ever say no to him, so I eventually agreed. He smirked his amusement, before tenderly kissing me on my forehead, calling in the idiots that once constituted team Seven. He requested them to take me for my maternity appointment, and threatened grievous bodily harm if any harm fell upon me.

"The hell? The bastard has no hope in us whatsoever. Look at what he's done to Sakura-chan, and he's threatened to kill us, dattebayo," Naruto screeched again, as I walked into the examination room.

Shihsou looked at me up and down, before snorting and standing up and walking toward me. I frowned.

"What's the matter, Shishou?" I asked.

"Che, you kids. So soon. You got married what, months ago? Look at you, waddling around, already five months gone. No wonder he's been so smug. Not to mention he's refused to take any missions, the brat. This is all your fault, Sakura, getting knocked up so soon," she grumbled as she checked my weight and zapped her chakra through my system.

"Well, that's the point of marriage, Shishou, to settle down and get children. It's my duty as the wife to the clan heir to get him children. Remember, he's refusing to take missions because _you _brought about the law that no shinobi is to take any missions when their spouse begins the second trimester, so quit whining."

"Fine, fine. Enough with the lectures already," she muttered, waving a hand at me.

"You wanna have your ultrasound today?" she asked, her voice growing more tender.

I nodded, looking down at my belly and smiling again.

"Very well, call those idiots in and let us begin."

"I'm waiting for Itachi. He said he was going to deal with some clan business then he's turn up. He requested not to start the ultrasound until he got here," I said quietly as I felt my cheeks warm.

Shishou snorted again. How bloody long is he going to take? Uchiha are so bloody complicated, and their complications are very unnecessary as well," she grumbled, as she walked back to her chair behind her desk to pour herself a glass of sake and sulk.

Right on cue, we heard yelling.

"NANDATO? What makes you think you can get in before us, Itachi-taichou? She was our Sakura-chan first."

"Well, she's _mine _now. I've claimed her for my own, and she is full with _my _child."

"Still, we got her-oi, oi, you listening, Itachi-taichou? Don't. Tsunade no baa-chan is in there, and she's gonna pound you right back into your district if-"

Suddenly, there was a loud crash and an indignant screech.

The door was slammed open, and Sasuke-kun stumbled in with a black eye. He was dragging a disoriented Naruto behind him, and half of his jacket was burnt off, and I could see traces of flames on the charred remains. Were those fragments of glass on his skin? Shisui was very much struggling not to burst into laughter, and Itachi had his usual blank look on his face.

Both Shishou and I raised our eyebrows.

"Baa-chan! Baa-chan! Itachi-taichou is a bully. He burned my jacket. Burnt it, goddammit. There's nowhere else I can get a jacket like this," Naruto shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at Itachi and strategically hiding himself behind me.

"Shut it, brat. I really don't wanna know."

I walked over to the hospital bed and climbed on it. I lay down flat on my back, and Shihsou pulled the ultrasound machine behind her. She pulled my top over my stomach and begun applying the jelly on it.

"Ne, ne, Tsundae no baa-chan, what's that stuff?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade Shihsou ignored him. She put the machine on, and in a few seconds, we could see the image of my little one on the screen.

He was just beautiful, so absolutely beautiful, that I could not help the tears that flowed freely from my eyes.

Shihsou glanced at me and smiled warmly.

"He's doing very well, developing excellently. Your next appointment is in two weeks. Don't be late," she said.

"Hold on, Shishou. I have something to tell you guys, all of you. Please wait," I pleaded, my voice slightly cracked because of my tears.

"Ita-kun and I had this discussion a while ago, and we thought it's time we told you," I begun. "Naruto, we would like you to be our son's godfather. This role will fit you perfectly I think, but if you teach him any pranks, you'll have Itachi to deal with. Sasuke-kun, we would like you to be his trainer. Train him on anything and everything to do with field shinobi work. Shishou, I don't have parents of my own anymore, but I really would be honoured if you were to be like a grandmother to him, and Kakshi-sensei a grandfather. If he ever infects my son with his tardy tendencies and his porno-reading habits, I _will _kill him," I said, grumbling toward the end.

Speak of the devil, there was a sudden pouf and a cloud of grey smoke, before Kakashi-sensei appeared. I really wasn't in the mood.

He crinkled his eye. "Sorry I'm late. On my way here, I met Nekobaa-sama and she told me one of her cats-"

"Shisui," I said, cutting him and one of his ridiculous excuses off, "we have decided to name him Kurohyou, and we decided that you'd be his tutor. You'd teach him everything he needs to know about the Uchiha, and maybe you can pass on to him the legacy your parents passed on to you." I said quietly, looking at Shisui.

At that, he smirked. "I must admit, I am honoured. My children's clan heir is named after my Chichi-ue and I will be the one to pass on my legacy to him. I'm at a loss for words, though it's safe that I accept," he replied softly.

I opened my mouth to thank him, but I ended up hiccupping instead.

"You're welcome, Sakura."

"Oi, temee, you supposed to be choosing a wife or some shit? Why don't you go for the medic, the really hot one that Sakura-chan hates," Naruto suddenly yelled.

Before I even realised what was happening, I was already on the other end of the hospital.

What the hell was happening?

"Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu!"

Well, this was troublesome.

**The end.**

**What can I say, it's been awesome. Thanks so much everyone, this story is finally over.**

**I appreciate it all; the reviews, favourites, alerts, etc etc etc. Funny fates will be up in a bit, maybe next week, if I get to it.**

**Be cool, ya'll. Ja na. **


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